Catholic Candle note: Below is part 9 of our exploration of the best type of education – which is a true Catholic Liberal Education. Do not confuse this education with many university programs called “liberal arts” but which are full of fluff, falsehood, and aimless so-called “cultural enrichment” courses and “humanities”.

A liberal education also does not refer to liberalism, nor is a true liberal education an indoctrination into that error of liberalism or political correctness. In fact, a true Catholic Liberal Education is the best antidote to the errors of liberalism.

As context for this ninth part of this article, let us recall what we saw in the earlier eight parts:

Previously, in part 1 of this article,¹ we examined the problems we see in modern education:

• Modern colleges do not improve the quality of their students’ minds (and their thinking ability) much or at all.

  
  

• Most “education” is merely job training, fluff courses, and/or leftist indoctrination.

  
  

• The students are trained to sound like someone in their field but they do more memorizing and little thinking.

  
  

• Grade “inflation” and degree “inflation” is rampant. Grades and academic degrees do not mean much anymore.

In part 2 of this article,² we examined, in general, what education is. We considered the human soul and the perfection of its highest faculty (i.e., power) – which is the intellect – and which is immaterial (i.e., incorporeal). We saw that our intellects are perfected through knowing eternal, unchangeable truths and their causes.

In part 3 of this article,³ after having seen what true education is, we examined the question who should perfect his intellect.

In part 4 of this article,⁴ having seen that modern universities do not provide a true education, we consider whether there is ever any reason for men or women to attend them.

In part 5 of this article,⁵ having seen that women and girls should pursue a True Catholic Liberal Education – just as men and boys should, too – we then considered what the best environment is in which women and girls should do this.

In part 6 of this article, we addressed the objection that, having seen the great value of a true Catholic Liberal Education, we should be afraid that the great blessing of this education would be a danger to our souls because it might foster in us the vice of pride.⁶

In part 7 of this article, we considered more fully the difference between the education which is appropriate for a free man as contrasted to the education which is appropriate for a slave.⁷

In part 8 of this article, we considered further how the truth perfects our minds. This shows us that we must really know the truth, not merely hold true opinions.⁸

At the end of part 8 of our exploration of a genuine Catholic Liberal Education, the question arose What Studies (Sciences) More-Specifically Belong in a Catholic Liberal Education? Below, in part 9, we explore this issue.

What Studies Belong in a True Catholic Liberal Education?

Part 9

Having seen that a Catholic Liberal Education is truly education and not merely fluff, job training, or indoctrination into leftist ideology, it is time to consider more specifically: What studies belong in a true Catholic Liberal Education? This canon of study has long been set out and perennially followed in Western Civilization (Christendom) by those seeking to perfect their highest faculty (their mind). Below, we outline that canon of study and some of the reasons for it. These are the studies which enable us to appreciate and to love the Life of Truth – which is the life that we should all lead.

So, let us explore an outline of what a true education should be.

We Should Study Theology

Theology is the science of God and the things intimately connected to God. There are two types of theology because there are two ways for men to come to know God. The first way is through God revealing to us truths about Himself, and this is called revealed theology. These revealed truths are found in two founts: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

The second way to know God is through natural theology, and in this, man uses his reason alone. This latter is the sort of theology the great (non-Catholic) minds such as Aristotle pursued although they did not have the gift of Faith. But Natural Theology is important for those who have the Catholic Faith too. Thus, St. Thomas and other Doctors of the Church delve deeply into Natural Theology and St. Paul commends it too. Romans, 1:20.

Let us say a few words about each of these types of theology.

Revealed Theology

As we saw earlier,⁹ we should perfect our intellect by knowing the highest truths. Thus, we should especially know and study God and the things intimately connected to God.

We should study revealed theology for these two reasons:

1. Some of these Divine truths cannot be known except by Divine revelation, e.g., the fact that God is a Trinity.

2. Revealed theology cannot err because the Catholic Faith is infallible. Revealed truths are the most certain of all knowledge because God is the Author of those truths and directly reveals those truths to us; man is not involved in deriving these truths.

So, we should study revealed theology – which is the study of what God has revealed about Himself and also what He has revealed about things which are closely related to Himself (e.g., the universe, angels, man).

Natural Theology

Besides revealed theology, we should also study Natural Theology, i.e., the truths concerning God (or related to God) which are knowable by the light of natural reason. For example, God’s existence can be proved five ways by unaided reason. Summa, Ia, Q.2 a.3. Likewise, through reason, we can prove that God is wholly simple, He is infinitely powerful, and many other things about God.

Just as the happiness and perfection of the blessed in heaven is the knowing (the contemplation) of God’s essence, i.e., the Beatific Vision, so the knowledge which perfects our mind (our highest faculty) on earth is likewise, most of all, the knowledge of God as deeply as He can be known in this life – both by revelation and by natural reason.

We Should Study Philosophy

Metaphysics

We should study the philosophy called metaphysics because it pertains to the deepest truths we can know by reason. Metaphysics studies Being most broadly and so includes some natural theology. Metaphysics studies and defends the truth that the Good is convertible with Being. That is, they are the same in reality but different in our understanding. This truth explains, for example, how God is understood by us under various aspects which seem separate, such as that He is both good and beautiful in His very Nature even though His Nature is entirely simple.¹⁰ This truth also explains, for example, why God loves even the devils insofar as pertains to God’s Own work creating their natures and the good that He placed into their natures.

Metaphysics also defends the truths at the foundation of human learning. For example, metaphysics examines and defends the Principle of Non-Contradiction, viz., that something cannot be and not be at the same time in the same respect. This Principle of Non-Contradiction tells us, e.g., that it would be false to both say that a square is not a triangle and also that a square is a triangle. This principle is crucial and is the basis for knowing all truth and is the firm unshakable foundation upon which rests all of our knowledge.

Revealed theology, natural theology, and metaphysics are three parts of the educational plan for developing and perfecting our minds with a Catholic Liberal Education.

Ethics

Besides revealed theology, natural theology, and metaphysics, a true education should include the science of ethics, which pertains to the proper ordering of our soul and our actions in the moral life, according to reason and according to our Catholic Faith. St. Thomas explains that “The essence (or nature) of human virtue consists in this: that the movements of the soul are regulated by reason”.¹¹

All of our thoughts, words, deeds, and omissions which are properly human and intentional (as contrasted to unreflecting and instinctive) are either good (and so are according to virtue), or are evil and sinful. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Church, teaches this truth:

It belongs to the reason to direct; if an action that proceeds from deliberate reason be not directed to the due end, it is, by that fact alone, repugnant to reason, and has the character of evil. But if it be directed to a due end, it is in accord with reason; wherefore it has the character of good. Now it must be either directed or not directed to a due end. Consequently, every human action that proceeds from deliberate reason, if it be considered in the individual, must be good or bad.

If, however, it does not proceed from deliberate reason, but from some act of the imagination, as when a man [“mindlessly”] strokes his beard, or moves his hand or foot, such an action, properly speaking, is not moral or human; since [a moral or a human action] depends on the reason. Hence it will be indifferent, as standing apart from the genus of moral actions.¹²

A liberal education is the education that a free man should have.¹³ (“Liberal” comes from the Latin word “liber”, which means free.) Ethics is included in a liberal education because a free man should know how to live well and virtuously and so avoiding the slavery of sin – which is contrary to the life of a free man. As Our Lord told the Jews:

Amen, amen I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin, is the slave of sin.

St. John’s Gospel, 8:34

Thus, we should study True Ethics because:

• this is a science proper to a free man;

  
  

• it shows us how to live well and live according to reason; and

  
  

• it shows us how to attain our end in life – both our natural end and our supernatural end.

Just as there exists a theology of revelation as well as a natural theology, similarly there is a Catholic ethics as well as a natural ethics. In the science of natural ethics, correct reason (even without the help of the Faith) shows us that the happy life is the life of virtue and the life of truth and reason. The Catholic Ethics which is taught by our Catholic Faith shows us the same thing, but in a manner which is in some ways more elevated to include some supernatural truths of ethics, such as the value of fasting for a supernatural motive.

Because we are one single whole, i.e., one person, our different faculties and parts intimately affect each other. Thus, a disorderly and sinful will prevents us from having the good habits which promote the practice of our devoting ourselves, like we should, to the life of truth. Further, when our mind is darkened, then this prevents us from living the virtuous and happy life that we should.

Thus, the perfection of our minds with the light of the truth goes together with the perfection of our wills with moral virtue. A disorderly intellect harms our will and a disorderly will harms our intellect. Here is how St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, explains the grave effects of error in our mind, upon our will and memory:

When the soul is darkened in the understanding, it is benumbed also in the will, and the memory becomes dull and disordered in its due operation.

Ascent of Mount Carmel, Ch.8, §2.

Thus, we see that the correct understanding of ethics is necessary:

• to achieve our practical ends of happiness both

  
  

  • here in the present life;

    
    

  • as well as, even more so, in Heaven,

but also

• to enable us to effectively study and perfect our minds in all intellectual fields because a mind which is not enlightened by the truth:

• Is an obstacle to avoiding sin; and

• Results in a man’s weakness of will and dullness of memory that is an obstacle to learning.

Political Philosophy

A true Catholic Liberal Education should include political philosophy. This study of political philosophy to which we refer does not consist in matters such as “crisis management” in “politics” when this is needed by some politician who has been caught engaged in evil conduct which could end his career.

The study of political philosophy also does not involve things like:

• how a political candidate can persuade voters to vote for him;

  
  

• how to conduct accurate political polls;

  
  

• how to effectively raise funds for a political campaign;

  
  

• how to benefit special interest groups while giving voters the impression of serving them;

  
  

• how to speak as if you agree with diverse voters who disagree with each other; or

  
  

• any other trick to succeed in the business of practical politics.

Man is by nature a political animal, as St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle explain.¹⁴ This means that man is not only a social animal – viz., one who naturally lives in a group – as bees and ants do also – but he naturally organizes collectively and works with other men, using his reason for this organized, joint work.

So the science¹⁵ of politics to which we refer, is the science which examines how political animals (men) should organize and work together performing collective works which are rational and thus are natural to them. That political activity (which is political in this broad sense) is God’s Will for man and involves such cooperation and joint work which shows that God created man to live a higher life than is lived by irrational animals. (The collective activity of irrational animals is by instinct, whereas the organized activity of men is using their own reason.)

Whereas, in the science of ethics, we study the life that each individual man should lead – which is life according to reason and virtue – by contrast, political science is the study of the life that men should live collectively – viz., the organized joint activity of rational, virtuous men united in society.

This political science investigates how virtuous men should collectively promote the Common Good, suppress evil conduct, and rectify the characters of evil men because the end/goal of collective (political) action is to make society virtuous,¹⁶ since this is the happy life.

Thus, the science of politics studies such things as:

• What law is;

  
  

• Whether the civil law is binding in conscience;

  
  

• Whether revolution is morally permissible;

  
  

• Whether “civil disobedience” is morally permissible;

  
  

• What is the end of political life for the individual man and for society collectively?;

  
  

• What is the life of man in society which promotes man’s good, his perfection, and his happiness both on the natural level and the supernatural level?;

  
  

• What is the virtue of patriotism and how is it subordinate to the virtue of piety and how is it ordered by the virtue of justice?;

  
  

• The proper operation of government according to the rule of subsidiarity;

  
  

• What types of government are permissible; what type of government is best; and

  
  

• How can the ruler best facilitate the formation of virtue in the citizens?

These and many other truths which are studied in the science of politics are of great value in seeing and promoting the True and the Good in society, just as the science of ethics is of great value in seeing and promoting the True and the Good in the individual.

Both of these sciences are grounded in man’s rational nature – there is neither ethics nor politics for brute beasts. Both of these sciences aid the intellectual life by fostering the orderly conditions in which the pursuit of high truth and the achievement of great good can be accomplished.

Philosophy of Nature

Besides these sciences, what else should a free man (or woman) study? He would study the principal works of creation. Here are two reasons for this:

1. We already saw (above) that natural theology is part of a Catholic Liberal Education. But in the order of natural theology (i.e., studying these highest things known according to reason) our knowledge of Divine things comes through our knowing God as the Cause of His effects and His works in this world. In other words, our study of nature helps us in our study of natural theology, through which we understand God as the Cause of the being and of the operation of natural beings (i.e., creatures).

   
   

2. Further, we study the chief parts of natural science, because God made us to naturally wonder about the world around us and to seek to understand God’s work of creation.

In this study of nature, we should especially study the principles of nature, e.g., things such as:

1) What is time;

2) What is place;

3) What is occurring when one substance is changed into a different substance?;

4) Whether infinite distance is possible (in the universe);

5) What is life and what is the soul, as it is present in plants and animals;

6) How does the human soul differ from the souls of other animals – its rationality and immortality;

7) What is motion; and

8) Whether Nature acts for an end or not.

These truths are much more perfecting to our minds and important to study and to know compared to such narrow topics of nature such as “What is a genetic code?”. Here are three reasons for this:

1. The foundational truths of our world are greater in themselves than the studies of things that are less foundational;

   
   

2. The foundational truths are more certain and less apt to be overthrown by new theories e.g., about genes; and
   

3. Those matters which are less foundational depend for their true understanding upon the knowledge of those foundations underlying them. For example, the truth of the matters studied regarding the genetic code depends on the foundational understanding of what is happening when one substance changes into another.

Mathematics – viz., Geometry, Arithmetic, Music, and Astronomy

A liberal education should include the mathematical sciences. Geometry and other types of mathematics have a unique clarity because the mathematical sciences abstract from aspects of bodies which can obscure universal principles. For example, we can consider what a straight line is as a universal concept and abstracted from the fact that the lines that we see around us (e.g., on the edges of a table at which I am sitting) are slightly crooked or bumpy.

Arithmetic, as a science, is not the working out of particular problems as “532347296 divided by 34”. Rather, arithmetic considers universal truths about all numbers. Questions such as these are considered: “Is it true that any number is either prime or is measured by some prime number?” and “If three numbers are in continued proportion, and the first is square, then is the third one also square?” Considering universal truths about numbers is important. God created two different types of quantities: those like lines, circles, cubes, and other figures (continuous quantities studied in geometry). But He also ordered nature in discrete quantity (studied in arithmetic). Not only does studying arithmetic (as a science) help form the mind to be logical, but doing so is necessary to come to a more complete understanding of the reality of God’s order.

In addition to this unique clarity of the mathematical sciences, there are many aspects of the world around us which are mathematically quantifiable and so the mathematical sciences are tools to further study certain properties of nature insofar as they are quantifiable. For example, we can learn more about the properties of light and sound as they bounce off of a wall, by considering what we learned about angles in the science of geometry.

Music is a science which involves mathematics applied to musical pitches. For example, various musical intervals are characterized by different ratios, such as a musical octave having the ratio of 1:2 in the length of strings and pipes of musical instruments. That is, for example, a piano string which provides a “C” note is half as long as an otherwise-similar piano string which provides the “C” note which is one octave lower. So this string ratio is 1:2.

Likewise, astronomy, which is the study of the heavens, is mathematical in nature, since it involves angles, distances, speeds, etc. of the heavens and the bodies in the heavens. Just as music applies mathematics to sound, astronomy does so to observations of the heavens.

Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric

Logic. Early on in this course of studies, it will help a person to refine his mind by studying logic. This will help him in many ways. For example, it enables him to more carefully and explicitly understand which arguments result in a necessary conclusion, compared to those arguments which result in a conclusion which is merely probable. Further, the science of logic will enable a person to also contrast those arguments which are valid, to fallacious arguments (that conclude falsely).

Grammar. The student should also study the science of grammar because (among other reasons):

1. Grammar is the liberal art which helps to form logical, true, and clear sentences. Since we think in words and sentences, these must be clear and grammatical in order to be cogent and to reflect nature and reality; and

   
   

2. The process of learning is a discussion with others (as well as in our own mind) and so we must master the art of grammar in order to be clear and articulate in those discussions with others as well.

Rhetoric. Lastly, the discussions we have in our own minds and with others will be more enjoyable and profitable if we have some acquaintance with the art of rhetoric so that we can express ourselves beautifully and persuasively, as well as clearly and cogently.

The Seven Liberal Arts

The study of the seven liberal arts are sometimes thought to be the same as a liberal education. That is not true. Rather the liberal arts are the proper beginning of a liberal education.

Above, we saw that four mathematical sciences have a role in a true Catholic Liberal Education. These are: geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy. Traditionally, these four are collectively called the quadrivium of the liberal arts. The word “quadrivium” is a word combining the Latin prefix “quadri” with the Latin word “viae”, which mean the “four paths”.

Above, we reflected on why we should also include logic, grammar, and rhetoric in a liberal education. These three are traditionally called the trivium. The word “trivium” is a word combining the Latin prefix “tri” with the Latin word “viae”, which mean the “three paths”.

These seven intellectual disciplines are the liberal arts. In modern times, the phrase “liberal arts” (as that phrase is now usually used) has come to mean something vague such as “the humanities” or “the studies of the works of man” or “general education.”

But this is not properly what the liberal arts were or are. In the educational tradition of Christendom and the Western World (including the ancient world), the liberal arts referred to seven introductory disciplines which are valuable in themselves but which are also exceedingly helpful for developing the student’s mind to prepare him for studying the very highest subjects – philosophy and theology.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Doctor of the Church, sets out the wise advice of prudent educators – telling us that students should not begin their studies with the highest truths (philosophy and theology), but rather, approach them through studying the liberal arts first.

Here are his words, advising how students should approach the study of great truths:

Concerning how to acquire the treasure of knowledge, choose to enter, not immediately into the ocean [of the knowledge of philosophy and theology] but enter by little streams that flow into the ocean, for difficult things can more easily be reached by means of the easier ones.¹⁷

These “little streams” are the seven liberal arts through which we should approach the highest truths of Faith and Reason.

Conclusions of this Article

All of the primary things studied in a true Catholic Liberal Education are works of God, not the works of man.

Above, we saw many important elements of a good Catholic Liberal Education:

• We should perfect our intellect by knowing the highest truths. Thus, we should especially study and know God and the things most intimately related to God. We should study revealed theology, natural theology, and metaphysics.
  

• Besides these highest studies, we saw that we should study the science of ethics, which pertains to the proper ordering of our soul and of our actions in the moral life – according to reason and according to our Catholic Faith. This is important because a liberal education is the education that a free man should have so that he knows how to live well, virtuously, and happily.

  
  

• We also saw that we should study political philosophy, that is, the science of how men should live collectively according to reason and how they should organize and work together performing collective works which are suited to their rational nature.

  
  

• Next we saw that we should study the most important parts of nature especially those which are most at the foundation of all truth about creatures, such questions as what is time, what is motion, what is a soul, what is special about the human soul, what occurs during a change of one substance to another, etc. These creatures, especially the higher ones, manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, Who designed them.

  
  

• Lastly, we should approach the highest truths through the study of the seven liberal arts.

Looking Ahead

Wonder and wisdom are often mentioned in connection with a Catholic Liberal Education. What are wonder and wisdom and what is that connection with a true education?

To Be Continued …