There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the ‘wisdom’ of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique; and both, in the practice of this technique, are ready to do things hitherto regarded as disgusting and impious such as digging up and mutilating the dead.[1] —C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
I affirm the Medieval Scholastic axiom that “all learning is an assimilation of the knower to the Known,” in addition to the Augustinian notion that true wisdom is loving various forms in the proper order to the correct degree according to their intrinsic merit. To sufficiently (but succinctly) explicate the contention that all liberal and genuine education aims at ordering the human soul to an external reality of which each human being is a part, there are several fundamental questions that must first be explored. First, human beings must be differentiated from other (lower) life forms that occupy the corporeal world of a posteriori experience. After which, a case that liberal education is essential for ‘human flourishing,’ i.e. ‘happiness,’ may be made. But this can only occur in so far as liberal education is defined and delineated. To accomplish this, one must perceive the archetype at which it aims. Then—and only then—may pedagogical methodology be explored.
What is a Human Being?
Aristotle defined man as “the rational animal,” which seems to be a good starting point in our inquiry. By rational, Aristotle meant that man possesses the peculiar and unique mental faculty of reason. What this entails is that while other animals—even higher forms like certain sociable mammals—are driven primarily by instinct (or the passions), man possesses the capacity to deliberate about both means and ends, as it relates to action, inaction, or even the leisurely contemplation of the telos, logos, ethos, or pathos. While Aristotle’s definition of man as the rational animal is by no means complete and is frequently challenged within the so-called ‘Great Tradition’ itself, it seems that one does stand on firm ground differentiating man from beast on the basis of reason, which enables man to rise above his passions and base impulses.
When philosophers first differentiated man from beast primarily on the basis of reason, it was understood that reason was the highest part of the human soul. For Plato, the human soul had three distinct parts, namely the head, chest, and belly, or the mind, the spirit, and appetite respectively. Aristotle, in his De Anima, argued that the soul is essentially the form (or actuality) that animated the body (or potentiality). While there is much debate within the tradition as to what constitutes a human soul, it seems tenable to suggest that whatever its particular parts and delineations, the soul is the essence of the corporeal human form and the animation of each individual human being. From this premise, it is generally surmised that in order for the soul to live in harmony with itself and the external world, it must be ‘well-ordered’ in such a way that it does not contradict itself by having components that are unequally yoked or in opposition to one another. This conundrum is usually formulated as an axiom that within the soul there can be no internal discord—or that impulse must be subjugated to reason, and so on. The process by which this endemic and inherent strife plays out over time in the soul is typically classified as the ‘human condition’; the humbling knowledge of the existence of such a condition of not only wretchedness, but also that of utter ignorance, constitutes a vital aim of liberal education:
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