Critical Response Essay

Liberal education is the course of training by which the academicians are prepared for their own sake, for the ideal of their own appropriate object and their individual maximum culture. This is in contrast to the normal purpose of confinement, profession or science and study. For a couple of years, this liberal approach to college studies has not been vibrantly successful and required to be defended. Arguments for and against the value of liberal arts against technical based training have evolved over time, and true value can be based from these views.

John Henry Newman had the view that a university is an accommodation for universal knowledge and teaching. This implied that it had an intellectual object, not a moral one. Liberal education, on its own, is plainly the fostering of the mental power. Philosophical and scientific discoveries were its main object thus no need for students. A religious objective approach would mean that it did not require science and philosophy as its core objective. Its main agenda could not be achieved without the church taking an active role. Integrity would be the fundamental goal that the church would provide in universities. The church would steady if the fulfillment of intellectual education were achieved.

He obliged the Catholic Church to create a University that would cherish knowledge, talent, and ingenuity, for the welfare of her children. This would in turn spread religious influence to the people’s posts in life and improve their capability, intelligence and active role in society. Two unequivocal functions arose: to teach and to discover. These two were not found incorporated in an individual. Great thinkers were absent minded and shunned public school as well as lecture rooms. Proper examples would be Pythagoras, who experienced part of his life in a hollow, Plato who dissolved from Athens to the forests of Academus and Friar Bacon who lived in a tower above the Isis. Thus, great explorations in science were not made in Universities.

Theology, rather than being cultured as contemplation, loses not its divine nature if it is confined to the pulpit purpose. When it is exercised, it becomes a business making full application of Theology. Thus, even the supernatural need not be present as liberal. Personal gain, when made as the sole motive has adverse effects on the character of any purpose driven action. Newman’s remarks are summed up in the words of a great Philosopher: “Of possessions, those rather are useful, which bear fruit; those liberal, which tend to enjoyment. By fruitful, I mean, which yield revenue; by enjoyable, where nothing accrues of consequence beyond the using” (Aristotle 5).

Seneca, a Stoic philosopher, lived in a time when liberal education was most appropriate for a free person. He became adamant to support courses such as music, astronomy, literature and geometry since they made people righteous. Seneca reduced liberal studies to a form of moral publicity. His belief was that liberal arts are the raw materials to build a virtuous life and therefore, not expendable. Any study that had the sole intention of generating money was unworthy to him. The quest for wisdom was the only true liberal art.

Any mythical account, syllable analysis or concentration on words did not lead to virtue. None of these knowledge courses brought out desire, an unquenchable passion nor dispelled fear. The information that did not tell anybody what to be afraid of or what to disregard was valueless to the recipient. The learner would not have an impact on this line of interest. A music teacher would rather create harmony in the student’s mind than teach them how to play different notes. A geometrician should guide on what amount is needed to attain satisfaction instead of teaching about how to calculate the area of estates.

Of what use would dividing a piece of land into equal portions when someone could not divide it amongst family members. Instead of teaching on the approximate measurement of property, teach them on how to handle land encroachers. In case of astrologers, how would being familiarized with an unchangeable process inspire them to deal with a dynamic world? Character can never be taught in liberal studies. However, sustenance and provision generation is gained from such study.

Saneca and Newman, both advocate for attainment of morality in society and do not support any option that would provide anything less. Saneca would say that wisdom is not contained in books. However, memory relies more on a fallback plan than it does on its own without any content on which to feed. Newport sensitizes more on integrity and states that the protestant church is a step ahead of the Catholic Church in this. Catholics send their own to protestant schools because of lack of their own morally nurturing institutions.

Also in comparison, a clear similarity is visible. This is training learners to apply skills that they have learnt in a wider scope other than in school. Not all the knowledge acquired would suffice for a practical approach in life skills. It would not bring character unless it teaches the same. A very learned society that is poor in terms of ethical upbringing, would not achieve many goals in the end. Any money generated with lack of training on how to make proper use would go to utter waste.

Knowledge is pursued for its sole sake, as Newman would say. It is a result sufficient to be content upon gain. This is equivalent to Seneca’s view about wisdom. He mentions that, on the aspects of time and soul, many questions arise. Thus, no rest can be acquired on the numerous accounts of things to research. Wisdom would be in need of adequate space and attention to move. It cannot be cramped or treated as something minute. Things that encounter a cutting off from every other thing yet remain alive must be living by themselves.

Seneca’s argument has attributes that are highly convincing. A label of a learned person takes decades to be generated and leads to a loss of so much time. It is better to be recognized as a good man by gathering as much as one only needs. Any quest to be acquainted with more than is adequate is regarded as overindulgence. People spend so many years gaining things they will never require rather than learning about what they need. The result is a self-satisfied, irritating, pedantic and tactless individual who rubs off on the entire globe. Redundant liberal studies are the main category under which so many philosophical and scientific theories lie.

As he would put it, “I should find it difficult to say which of these people annoy me most, those who would have us know nothing or the ones who refuse even to leave us the small satisfaction of knowing that we know nothing” (Fitch 21).

Works Cited

Aristotle, and W D. Ross. Nicomachean Ethics: Book I. Raleigh, N.C: Alex Catalogue, 2000. Internet resource.

Fitch, John G. Seneca. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Internet resource.

Goebel, Catherine C. Liberal Arts Through the Ages: Augustana General Education Studies. Rock Island, Ill: Augustana College, 2006. Print.

Hager, Paul, Alison Lee, and Ann Reich. Practice, Learning and Change: Practice-theory Perspectives on Professional Learning. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012. Internet resource.

Rupert, Jane. John Henry Newman on the Nature of the Mind: Reason in Religion, Science, and the Humanities. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books, 2011. Print.