A Proposal for the Fulfillment of Catholic
Liberal Education
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IX. THE PRESENT NEED FOR GENUINE LIBERAL EDUCATION
Though the relevance of liberal education for human nature
is profound, few men appear to be aware of its importance,
and those who are aware seem only to be imperfectly conscious
of it. Yet despite our overwhelming preoccupation with practical
matters, the desire to know does not altogether escape any
of us. Hence Aristotle can say, at the beginning of the Metaphysics,
that "men are by nature philosophers, lovers of wisdom."
It is true, further, that men cannot remain ignorant of the
need to educate themselves about philosophical matters without
consequences. To remain in such a state is to live in a way
that is less than human. Socrates had this in mind when he
judged that "the unexamined life is not worth living."
To deny philosophy on the other hand is impossible. "You
say," writes Aristotle in a celebrated dilemma, "one
must philosophize. Then you must philosophize. You say one
should not philosophize. Then (to prove your contention) you
must philosophize. In any case you must philosophize."
The questions pursued by liberal education are inescapable.
So long as man exists these questions will emerge, and if
they are not answerable truthfully, then man lives enslaved
in darkness or in error. And when a doctrine such as that
of academic freedom rules over all efforts to pursue these
questions, as is the case in our times, we become like those
silly women of whom the Apostle says that they are "always
learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth."
(II Tim., 3, 7.) We remain slaves.
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