New Tutor Profile
John Goyette, Ph.D.
(Fall 2002 Newsletter)
 Over
the past eight years, John Goyette, Ph.D. (Class of '90),
has been a major force in helping to form one of the only
Great Books seminaries in the nation. His work done, he decided
to return to his intellectual home, Thomas Aquinas College.
Since 1997, Goyette has served as chair of the philosophy
department at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan.
Under the direction of Bishop Allen Vigneron, Rector of the
Seminary, Goyette initiated a comprehensive revision of the
philosophy curriculum.
Drawing on his experience at Thomas Aquinas College, Goyette
helped turn the seminary's philosophy program into a Great
Books Program. He introduced new philosophy courses and re-wrote
syllabi for existing courses to include primary source materials
- those being, original works of authors - in place of secondary
source materials - thosed being, textbooks. The philosophy
courses now include works by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine,
and Aquinas, as well as those of influential modern thinkers
such as Bacon, Descartes, and Kant. The crowning course of
the curriculum integrates a range of subjects - philosophy,
theology, literature, and psychology - that incorporates a
common theme, love and friendship. Seminarians now read such
works as Plato's Symposium, Francis de Sales' Introduction
to the Devout Life, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice,
and papal encyclicals such as Casti Cannubii and Humanae
Vitae.
Every seminarian headed toward ordination must now complete
this coursework. And a bachelor's degree in philosophy has
become a prerequisite for the priesthood. "Bishop Vigneron
has championed the notion, emphasized by Pope John Paul II,
that the only way a priest can adequately address the problems
of modernity is to be something of a scholar. Bishop Vigneron
has a real sense of the Church's intellectual tradition and
of the need for philosophy to help articulate and defend the
faith."
Bishop Vigneron, though, has credited Goyette with the reform
of the philosophy program, remarking that his thinking has
made "a very important contribution to this generation
and the next generation of priests." The seminary is
home to 80 seminarians, about a third from the Archdiocese
of Detroit, the rest from four other Michigan dioceses and
the Upper Midwest. And many bishops now send their seminarians
there, in part, because of their confidence in the philosophy
program.
But now Goyette has decided to return to his alma mater.
He is closer to his four siblings and parents who live on
the West Coast. He is back among many of his friends who work
at or near the College. But most of all, for pure intellectual
enjoyment, he is back teaching in a curriculum that allows
him the opportunity to explore not just philosophy, but the
full intellectual range that accompanies it - mathematics,
science, literature, grammar, music theory. "In most
colleges or universities," he said, "you're stuck
in your discipline. Here, I get to pursue the entire life
of the mind."
"A seminary is ordered to training priests, and certainly,
you want priests to be grounded intellectually. That's not
the case in many places - priests are often trained as kind
of glorified social workers. But even when priests are trained
to be grounded intellectually, as they are at Sacred Heart,
the curriculum is still not quite ordered to the life of the
mind as might be found in Catholic liberal education. Working
at the seminary gave me a much deeper appreciation for the
College's curriculum, and why it is so important to have a
full complement of theology and philosophy that is tied together
with the other disciplines."
Goyette came to Sacred Heart while finishing his doctorate
in philosophy from The Catholic University of America. While
there, he was the recipient of the Penfield Fellowship and
two other scholarships for his work in philosophy. He wrote
his dissertation on "The Nature of the Theoretical Life
According to Aristotle: Wisdom, Politics and Philosophy."
He also studied classical Greek, French, and German.
He continued to distinguish himself at Sacred Heart, organizing
a national conference on "St. Thomas Aquinas and the
Natural Law Tradition" that brought together leading
Catholic thinkers such as Ralph McInerny, Russell Hittinger,
William E. May, Fr. Romanus Cessario, and Janet Smith. He
is also co-editing a volume of essays based on the conference
for The Catholic University of America Press, which will include
his own chapter on natural law and the metaphysics of Creation.
He also has several scholarly publications that arose out
of papers he presented at various academic conferences. His
topics range from treatments on Aristotelian natural science,
to St. Thomas and the unity of substantial form, to David
Hume's failed argument against miracles. He has devoted considerable
attention to John Henry Newman, examining the 19th century
English cardinal's views on Catholic liberal education.
"I became interested in Newman's Idea of a University
because it is often cited as the defense of a Catholic liberal
education. Aside from papal documents on education, Newman's
Idea is mentioned more times in Ex Corde Ecclesiae
- John Paul's Apostolic Constitution on Catholic universities
- than any other document. I was interested in seeing how
Newman's understanding of a Catholic liberal education compared
to the views of other influential Catholic thinkers such as
St. Augustine. I also wanted to see how Newman's views compared
to those of our College founders."
His principal objects of teaching, though, have changed,
seminarians being replaced with lay men and women students.
"It was a privilege to teach seminarians, knowing that
they were pursuing the path to the priesthood. But it's also
a real joy to return to teaching lay undergrads. Their excitement
for learning is contagious, they are eager to see the truth.
And, incidentally, because of that, many of them, in turn,
pursue religious vocations."
This year, Goyette is teaching freshman philosophy and laboratory,
and senior seminar. "The purpose of freshman philosophy
is, in many respects, to show the freshmen what they don't
know. One of the first readings is Plato's Meno, in
which Socrates gets the slave boy to see that he really doesn't
understand what he thinks he does. Students sometimes get
frustrated with this, but I remind them that they're, in fact,
gaining something from this experience. We have to realize
what we don't know in order to obtain wisdom."
The freshman laboratory course allows him to explore in greater
depth matters that he only touched on briefly at Sacred Heart.
"One class I designed there was on the philosophy of
nature, where we read Aristotle, J. Henri Fabre, Charles Darwin,
and others. Here, I get to have more hands-on biology and
to see how philosophy and experimental science work together.
I've been teaching Aristotle's Physics and De Anima
[On the Soul] for years, but now I get to see how the laboratory
complements these great works."
Goyette has also enjoyed re-immersing himself in the seminar
method. "A student can hide behind a lecture and I won't
know until exam time whether my lecture actually got through
to somebody, even though I may think my lecture was brilliant.
Often, I would find out that I just wasn't getting through
like I thought I was. But when a student is forced to think
things through he is more likely to see the truth and make
it his own."
"Having seniors for a seminar class is a great joy.
They know how to read and discuss a book. Freshman have all
the excitement and freshness about them, but they haven't
quite yet figured out how to do it. For seniors, my job is
much easier; they really need only minimal guidance."
Enjoying the return trip to her alma mater, too, is Goyette's
wife Rebecca (neé Mathie). The two were classmates
at the College and married after graduation. Rebecca just
delivered their sixth child. Both are happy to be back at
the College.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Fall 2002
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