Audio

“Today You Begin an Enormously Worthwhile Pursuit”

 

by Paul J. O’Reilly, Ph.D.
President, Thomas Aquinas College
California Convocation
August 22, 2022 

 

At the beginning of this new school year, it is natural for you to consider why you are here at Thomas Aquinas College. Why are you embarking on a unique course of studies that will occupy you almost entirely for the next few years? One way to prepare is to ask: What is distinctive about Thomas Aquinas College? Well, it turns out there are several things that make TAC unique. I would like to focus on the program in general.

It is a common view nowadays that liberal education is not practical, that a college education should be specialized, and should prepare us for the “real world.” On this view, liberal education might actually seem like a waste of time.

How should we judge this claim? Is this a particularly modern or American criticism of the value of a liberal education?

It might seem so. After all, our times do emphasize utility and action. Any education that does not pursue practical ends seems useless, frivolous, or even self-indulgent. As Americans we have the well-deserved reputation of being a “can do” people. We invented the first telephone, and the first computer, and so on. Most American universities and colleges emphasize the value of their programs in terms of acquiring a skill, learning a trade, or taking steps toward a successful career.

However, the tension between education that truly frees and education that pursues practical ends is older than America. Freshmen will read in a few weeks about Socrates’ discussion with Hippocrates and Protagoras. In this dialogue, the young Hippocrates seeks a teacher; he says he is in search of learning that “nourishes the soul.” Protagoras claims that he “educates people.”

To his credit, Hippocrates seeks Socrates’ help because he knows the choice of teacher is critical. So, Socrates urges Protagoras to explain what effect he will have on his student. Protagoras denigrates “arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry” (studies that are thought to perfect the mind). He says that he can teach his students something more worthwhile; namely, “the proper management of one’s own affairs, how best to run one’s household, and the management of public affairs” (Protagoras, 319a). These are very practical goals, but are they the proper goals of education? This objection, then, is not just modern, nor American, although it certainly typifies our times. It is a perennial question.

Whatever else one might say about liberal education, it is different from practical training. One difference is that liberal education starts with wonder. That is, it is motivated by the question “why?” Practical training is motivated by the question “how?” Liberal education is pursued for the sake of perfecting the mind, for coming to know the “why” of things. In other words, it is ordered to knowing the truth. This is a great goal. For as Christ told us, He is the Truth that makes us free. It is the truth then that sets one free and makes it the suitable study of the free man.

To come to know the truth requires many steps. I will briefly note three of these: leisure, order, and faith.

One of the founders of TAC, Mr. Mark Berquist, in an essay on liberal education, explained the significance of the first of these, leisure:

… this present life does allow some leisure to some of us, and liberal education seeks to exploit this leisure so that we might achieve as much freedom as possible. Accordingly, it is directed to the kinds of knowledge that human understanding seeks for its own perfection. Thus, it is not concerned primarily with practical knowledge — for no such knowledge is desirable in itself. If we could have the practical results without the knowledge, we would not bother with the latter; for example, if the sick could get well by themselves, no one would study medicine.

To say that school is for the sake of a career, or a well-paying job, then, is exactly inverting the right order. Work is for the sake of leisure. Education is for the sake of truth. The practical is for the sake of the leisure to pursue and rest in the truth.

Mr. Berquist put it this way: “We might say, then, that the free man does not desire learning in order to change the world but sees in learning itself the kind of change the world needs.”

But one cannot pursue the truth in a haphazard way. This brings me to the second element, order. There is a suitable order for learning that one who has come to know the truth is aware of. There is a reason why one should study natural philosophy before metaphysics; one is the foundation of the other. But how can the student judge that? So, the program at TAC has been put together for you. Thomas Aquinas College does not have electives, and the student does not determine the order of his studies.

However, students are certainly not in every way ignorant. If students are to be educated, and not indoctrinated, they must have a general grasp of basic principles from which their journey begins. This is important to realize. It is at the heart of the order of learning, and it is fundamental to the curriculum of Thomas Aquinas College.

Our founding document, which we call the Blue Book, states that: 1) there is a natural order of learning, and 2) that learning begins with general judgments that are common to all. I know no other college that states these two principles as the foundation of a genuine liberal education.

Mr. Berquist clarified this point:

One of the things that characterizes this college…is a consistent attention to the order of learning. Elsewhere you see a limited attention, especially in…science classes: there are courses that are prerequisite to other courses...But this concern for order does not extend through the entire curriculum. (Common Conceptions and Proper Conceptions, p.246)

Examples of this order in our curriculum you will discover soon enough. In freshman year we spend the entire year studying Euclid’s Elements in the Mathematics Tutorial, Aristotle’s logical treatises in Freshman Philosophy, and the Holy Bible in Theology class. These studies must come before Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, and Sacred Theology. And even these examples from freshman year are more subtle, because before Aristotle you will discuss some of the Platonic dialogues; in the dialogues Socrates teaches us what questions to ask, and in what order. Also, we do not start our reading of Scripture with Genesis and continue in the order that is found in the Bible. The order of chronology does not always help the beginner. We must first confront the difficulties of reading Scripture, and the ways the parts of Scripture shed light on each other. This suggests that the natural order of learning looks not just to how the parts of a discipline fit together, but also what is the best way to provoke wonder and manifest the wisdom in these disciplines.

Genuine liberal education must attend to the order of learning, and it must never ignore the fact that learning begins with what we all understand, even if we are not explicitly aware of that knowledge.

As it is put in the Blue Book, the knowledge that “establishes and builds itself faithfully upon common experience constitutes that wisdom called the perennial philosophy, and it is this … which alone makes true liberal education possible.”

So, this is what is unique about TAC. It is not simply that we read the Great Books. It is not only the Discussion Method employed in the classroom. It is the judgment that there is a natural order of learning, and an understanding, and respect for, what we all know implicitly. It is in light of these principles that we have selected the Great Books as our texts, and in light of them we discuss them in class.

Finally, the third and most fundamental element; the role of faith in coming to know the truth. Thomas Aquinas College is not only an academic institution, it is a Catholic academic institution. Does faith in any way do violence to the natural order of learning? No! Because truth is one, it is integrated. Faith, in fact, is the guardian of truth.

Much could be said about the role of faith as a principle and guide for liberal education. Our motto sums it up succinctly: “Faith Seeking Understanding.” The Blue Book puts it well: the intellectual life ought to be “conformed to the teachings of the Christian Faith, which stand as the beginning of one’s endeavors because they guide the intelligence in its activities, and as the end … because those endeavors are undertaken so that the Divine teachings themselves may be more profoundly understood.” The life of faith, then, is intimately bound up with the curriculum. For, in the Gospel of John, Jesus says that if you are His disciple, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John, 8:32).

So, I hope it is clear that today you begin an enormously worthwhile pursuit. There is nothing frivolous in your efforts, and it is certainly not self-indulgent. Your part will be challenging, but most things worth striving for are.

We, the faculty of Thomas Aquinas College, welcome you, Class of 2026. It is our hope that you will thrive here. We recommend that to get the most of your time here:

• Ensure you have leisure: Avoid the distractions all around us and devote yourself to the program.
• Be docile to the order of the curriculum: Read every assignment carefully and be ready to discuss them in class.
• Above all, allow the Christian faith to animate your efforts in and outside of the classroom.

And I pledge that we, the faculty of Thomas Aquinas College, will do all that we can do to encourage you in these efforts.

May God bless you.

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