I like to think I’m a Thomist who just hasn’t read Thomas yet. (Today is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church.) Every time I read about Thomas Aquinas’ views on theology, philosophy, and logic, it just seems so reasonable and beautiful. My cursory understanding of substance theory and the unmoved mover tell me that there is some good stuff there. I wanted to start on Summa Theologica over Christmas break. But it’s really long. I’m talking even-the-author-didn’t-finish-it long. And dense. I feel like a need a bit better backing on Western philosophy before attempting it again.
It’s
difficult to make sense of the arguments of theologians like Augustine and
Aquinas without understanding the arguments of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle.
I’ve never had much philosophical training, and I’m starting to see how detrimental
its absence in education is.
When
people refer to proof these days, they mostly mean falsifiable scientific
evidence that is a result of the empirical method. Post-enlightenment education
has tried to conform everything to the empirical method. This has caused areas
that are beyond scientific measurement to be regarded as inferior. Philosophy,
ethics, and metaphysics are areas worthy of study that have their own methods
of proof and evidence. Truth is not limited to scientific testing. If rhetoric
were still held in as high regard in education as it once did, maybe political
debates would have more sustenance than just two men comparing their parties’
statistical studies with one another. Science is certainly useful in studying
the physical world, in understanding how our bodies work, in developing
technology and medicine, etc. But science doesn’t teach honor, or liberty, or
love. Those fields deserve to be studied within proper frameworks just as much
as scientific fields.
I
fear that some people don’t see the value in studying anything outside of
scientific methodology and that they are missing out on the depth and richness of
humanity’s study of the world. Education did not begin with the Enlightenment.
There have always been scholars, for thousands of years in every civilization.
I’m
in grad school, but I’m only beginning to really look into the claims of Greek
philosophy, despite the fact that I’ve been raised in a society rooted in that
understanding of the world. I’m starting to see the foundations of my
assumptions and values. And then upon that foundation a cathedral can be built.
However,
it is important for me to not get overwhelmed in my studies. I’m a student by
nature, I think, and I value education highly. So it is easy for me to make the
error that knowledge will increase my faithfulness. As Augustine discovered,
knowledge does not equal virtue. Even after the seeking and understanding,
there is still a call to action. It is my response, my actions, my virtue, that
matter more than my understanding. That’s sort of a disheartening message for a
student who would find it simpler to seek redemption through knowledge. But it
is also liberating in knowing that I don’t need to understand it all. I don’t
need to accumulate and synthesize all of Western knowledge to make sense of
God. My pursuits can be knowledge for the sake of knowledge, a journey made out
of love.
Because philosophy
arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and
poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. -Thomas Aquinas
