Dr. Cunningham Lectures on Liberal Education and Digital Distractions

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Per Thomas Aquinas College tradition, the first installment of the St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series each year is a talk, given by a member of the teaching faculty, which deals with the subject of liberal education. To that end, tutor Dr. Sean Cunningham recently gave this year's opening lecture on the New England campus, Liberal Arts and its Rivals. 

Citing Aristotle in the Metaphysics, Dr. Cunningham began by noting that all men, by nature, desire to know, finding true happiness therein. “Free knowledge,” he argued, “is not necessitated by or used in the service of any further end.” Rather, it is pursued entirely for its own sake — not as a means to some material objective, but as the satisfaction of man’s inherent desire to know, with knowledge as its own reward. “Liberal education is for knowing,” he concluded. “Knowing for its own sake, and for knowing God.” 

From there, Dr. Cunningham addressed with liberal education’s competitors, the foremost of which he aptly termed “the Perpetual Spectacle.” The Perpetual Spectacle is, at its core, unrestricted distraction in the form of technology. Man is innately curious and full of wonder, possessing a predisposition and desire to know. The internet stifles man’s curiosity and preys on his attention, however, leaving him preoccupied and distracted, disordering his desire to know. It diverts the student from his admirable course of study and “the worthy life he has chosen,” replacing these with the equivalent of mental slavery.

Yet all hope is not lost, Dr. Cunningham continued. “There is yet a college where students do, will, and can read,” he observed drily, to the amusement of the audience. He then proceeded to advise the students: “Take charge of your own imagination, attention, and time.” The College has done much to provide an environment free from distractions and detractions, he said, but it cannot completely remove them or remove the students from them. Therefore, students must take initiative and eliminate distractions of their own accord, pursuing knowledge for its own sake. 

At the close of the lecture, Dr. Cunningham received a robust round of applause, and an open question-and-answer session followed. Participants engaged in discussion about many related topics, moving together toward a greater understanding of liberal education in its truest form, and how to seek it in the face of its adversaries. 

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