PHYLOSOPHY AND a liberal EDUCATION

Whenever a serious problem arises in society, whether it has to do with personal, domestic, or
internasional relations, someone is almost certain to insist that “education is the cure”. No one seems to
think that we should have less education or fewer educational institutions. There is alost universal
agreement that education is a good thing if we can get the right type or right kind of education. We
cherish our schools and colleges as among the basic institutions of a society thet is free democratic. To
close the schools or to have the books and records unread for even a few generations would lead, we all
feel, to the loss of our cultural heritage and our civiliration.

Mere education, however, is not enough. The important thing is the kind of education. We often hear
that “education is power”, but we need to remember that it may be power for life and human welfare
or power for death and destruction. One can train a dog either to kill sheep or to protect them. We can
teach persons to be selfish, narrow, and jingoistic, or we can give them an education which broadens
their shympatics and outlook and makes them cooperative members of a world society. Studies the
ideas, ideals, and values which are the basis of western civilization, and he fears that prevailing
education is destined, if it continoues, to destroy Western civilization.

In a book which grew out of a series pf studies in England, Sir Walter Moberly makes a statement which
applies equally well to education in Amerika. He says :

“Our predicament then is this. Most students go through our universities without ever having been
forced to exercise their minds on the issues which are really momentous. Under the guise of academic
neutrality they are subtly conditioned to unthinking acquiescence inthe social and political status quo
and in a secularism on which they have never seriously reflected. Owing to the prevailing fragmentation
of studies, they are not challenged to decide responsibly on a life purpose or equipped to make such a
decision wisely. They are not incited to disentangle and examine critically the assumptions and
emotional attitudes underlying the particular studies they pursue, the profession for which they are
preparing, the ethical judgements they accustomed to make, and the political or religious convictions
they hold. Fundamentally they are uneducated”

In speaking about the “three errors which help to account for the weaknesses of contemporary
education” in the Western world, Gilbert Highet says that the first is the mistaken notion that schools
exist mainly to train students to be integrated with their group or “adjusted to family and community”.
While there is some value in a fairly uniform pattern of culture, a central aim of education should be “to
train the idividual mind” and to help persons “to mantain personal independence”. The second error is
“the belief that education is closed-end process, which stops as soon as adult life begins.” In reality,
education is lifelong process. The third erroe, he says. Is the view “that learning and teaching ought to
have immerdiate results, show a profit, lead to success.” The primary fuction of education is rather to
“benefit the entire personality” and lead to a richer life, so that men can appreciate the riches of the
past and live creatively in the present and future.

Let us summerize a few of the criticisms that are being directed againts contemporary education,
remembering, of course, that these criticisms do not apply to all schools.
1. Our educational institutions, it is asserted, have no clear and consistent conceptions of their
educational aims that is there is no adequate sense of direction or mission or goals to be
achieved. while a student may get many good courses in a variety of subjects, this knowledge
often is not organized or integrated into any consistent whole the knowledge is likely to be
presented in separate packages. Departmentalization and specialization have gone so far that
we tend to see lifeand the world in small, unrelated fragments and to lose a sense of unity and
meaning. Since our educational institutions often fail to deal with the basic of living issues, their
graduates re often unable tp think clearly and coherently. We cannot assume that by gathering
more and more “facts” a person gains understanding and wisdom about his life and the world in
which he lives.
2. The stress in our educational institutions is too frequently on hours, points, grades, courses, and
passing examinations at set intervals. The system it is said, has tended to place emphasis in the
wrong place and to fix attention on false standards. The symbols or externals tend up usurp the
place of the goals. A student tends to worl for marks or for credits on the registrar’s records.
Often he is willing merely to “get by”, and exhibits a passive attitude. If he is able to get the
credits, he may feel satisfied whether or not he knows very much. But the genuine goal of the
educational process should be understanding or wisdom, not hours, grades, or credits.
3. Our schools and colleges, it is said, do not impart any common set of ideas ideals, and
convictions to their graduates frequently it is difficult for one graduate to talk to another on high
level of conversation because they have a little common knoeledge and few, if any, common
interests. Practically the only thing that present-day undergraduates have common is the fact
that they have succesfully managed to “pass” 120 to 128 semester hours of work.
Even more serious than the lack of common body of knowledge is the lack of common ideals
and convictions. Education too frequently fails to build up any vital affirmations convictions and
discilines. There has been a dangerous separatiom of science and research from human vlues
and loyalnes. As a nation of specialists we tend to apply our technical skill to our separate fields
and to assume little or no responsibility for human affairs and social relationships. As a result of
this attitude, our knowledege and our new techniques may be used just as readily by vicious
men to destroy our civiliation as by men of good will to advance human welfare. Confusion,
moral indifference and cynicum have too frequently been products of the exposure of young
persons to the “educational process”
The failure of the schools and colleges to measure up tp their highest postulates is to be
explained by alck of respect for scholarship and education part of general public. The highly
educated leader may find that a graduate-school degree, the ability to speak good english, and
a keen mind are handicaps among some sections of the population. Such a person may be
ridiculed as an “egghead” the fact that we may be falling behind some other nations in scientific
and cultural achievements may help to banish a distrust of the human mind and eliminate an
anti intellectualism which could bring dissaster.

LIBERAL EDUCATION THROUGH YEARS

Since early classical times, the liberal arts have held an important place in education because
these studies were felt to provide a clear, broad, and rational perspective on the world. The
name derives from latin term artes liberales, which was applied to those studies suitable for a
freemab as opposed to those adequate for a slave.
The subject embraced under the heading of liberals arts have changed from one period to
another. In the middle ages, for example, the liberal arts included grammar, rhetoric, and logic
or dialectic (the “Quadrivium”). During the Renaissance, there was a tremendous growth of
interest in classical language ang thought, as a result, Greek and Latin came to play an important
part in the liberal arts. Thus, the colleges founded during the colonial period in America stressed
the Greek and Latin classics, the art of argumentation, and since they founded with a view to
propagating the Cristian Faith-the cristian classics.
Until the latter half ofe the nineteenth century, most college courses were prescribed, or
required, so that students had little choice at that time included English, the classical languages,
mathematics, moral phylosophy, and the Bible, or the Christian religion. All college graduates at
that time had fairly identical backgrounds, since they had studied the same subjects in similar
ways. Two conditions, however, were to lead to the introduction of an elective system ehich
would permit college students to select the courses they desired to study. The first was the
rapidly increasing number and importance of new courses, especially in the natural sciences and
the social studies. The second was the growing emphasis upon the individual. The interests and
needs of the individual, it was said, should come before any fixed program of studies. In about
1870 President Charles W Eliot of Harvard was advocating the elective system. By 1884 the only
required courses at Harvard University were freshmen courses, and only a few of these were
prescribed. In spite of considerable opposition, the method of free election spread rapidly
through out the United States, though the amount of freedom varied considerably from
institution to institution.
The rapid multiplication of courses and marked increase in student enrollment, along with the
elective system, led to certain potential dangers, and critics were quick to point them out. They
noted that the individual tends to be neglected in such a system of mass education, and that
there was a noticeable shallowness, superficiality, and confusion of ideas on the part of many of
the products of the system. This was due in considerable part to the lack of integration in the
student’s course of studies. We have already considered some of the criticisms which arose.
The attempt to meet the criticisms and to avoid the dangers mentioned above led to various
changes in educational methods and requirements. For example, students were required to
select a field or department as a “major” in which to concentrate during the last two years of
their college course. Sometimes the student was required to select one or two “minor” fields
for similar but less thorough concentration. In some cases “group requirements” were set up.
The studen might be required to select a certain number of courses or hours from three or four
groups or divisions, such as natural sciences and mathematics, the social studies, the languages,
phylosophy, religion, and the fine arts.
Today there is a trend in the direction of orientation programs and survey or general courses
which cut across departmental lines. There is a growing emphasis upon integrating and
intensifying educational effort by such programs and devices as supervision and guidance,
honors courses, tutorial systems, seminars comprehensive examinations, workshop courses, and
field trips. A considerable number of schools are now requiring a “core” of general subjects
which are felt to be necessary for all students, regardless of their future plans for life.

FORMAL EDUCATION AND PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

A major conflict in educational theory and practice is between “formalism in education and
“progressive education”. The formalists, sometimes called “essentialists” tend to emphasize
subject matter. There is they claim a certain body of knowledge which forms the basis of human
culture and which should be transmitted to each generation. There is thus a tenderes to sress
thoroughness industry, discipline, subject matter, and logical organization.
The movement known as progress education places emphasis upon the interest of the
individual, upon freedom, and upon the child or the student rather than upon any particular
subject matter. Stress is also placed upon democracy and cooperative living in a social group.
Since people learn as they live, prominence is given to activity programs and projects.
At present there is much discussion and considerable amount of experiementation in education.
This is a sign of vitality and growth apart from the conflict between formal and progressive
education, there are other questions inviting consideration. For example, shall we look the
classics for inspiration and direction? The task of educaation, according to one approach, is to
transmit to oncoming generations the cultural heritage of the past. Liberal education, it is said,
should rely on the subject matter wich has withstood the test of time- that is, upon the great
books, or the classics. Human problems are similar from age to age. We face , such the same
problems that Plato, Aristotle, the prophets of Isrel, Dante, and Kant Faced. Studying the great
masters and learning what they have contributed will give us a keen analysis of the timeless
elements in these problems. It will also give us a common background and a common fund of
information, which are so essential among educated persons. A study of the great minds of the
past, as well as of the present, is the classicists feel, the most effective way to develop our latent
human capacities.
Shall we attempt to train young persons for specific vocation? In sharpest contrast to
the classicits’ ideal is the view that education should be a preparation for one’s lifework. The
rapid increase of courses in recent decades reflects this view. Furthet evidence is seen in a trend
in ehich technical and professional schools are today devoting almost their entire attention to
preparation for some spesific profession or trade.
Shall education train men mainly for citizenship in present day society? According to this
approach, the crucial question to be asked of any educational program is, “what does it
contribute toward the promotion of the culture of contemporary society?”. Information
regarding the past and skill in the manipulation of modern techniques are intruments which
may be used in helping to solve the pressing problems of our time. The great thinkers of the
past, whether in phylosophy or science, were concerned with the culture and the pressing
problems of their own day. We should follow their example, not merely learn their ideas,
language, and methods. Education, it is calmed, is essentially growth in the direction of
freedom, democracy, tolerance, cooperative living, and recognition of the rights of others.
While some institutions follow one or another of these movements exclusively, many
institutions are trying to give a balanced recognition to the merits of the classical, vocational,
and social emphases and require courses in general education, as well as in one or more special
fields.

THE FUCNTION OF PHILOSOPHY IN LIBERAL EDUCATION

At one time philosophy included all the special sciences. During and after the
Renaissance, mathematics and physics separated from philosophy. Later the other science and
disciplines became separated psychology has been a separate scince only in recent decades, in
some institutions it is still linked to philosophy. Today there are so many sciences and such a
maze of specialities within some of these sciences that many persons tend to forget the matrix
or the whole, of which these sciences are only apart.
In 1943 a commission on the function of philosophy in Liberal Education was appointed
by the pfficers of the American Philosophical Association. This commission undertook an
extensive study of the role which philosophy might play in modern education and in the postwar
world. In 1945 this commission published a report in the form of book entitled “Phylosophy in
american Education” . writing on “The Climate of Opinion”, Brand blanshard says thet “ the
major demands on philosophy” are for “integration”, for c”community of mind”, for a
“reinterpretation of democracy,”, and for a “phylosophy of life”. Of the demand for integration,
he says, “One of the great historic tasks of philosophy has been the putting together of the
results of human inquiry, religious, historical, scientific, into a consistent view of the world”.
Philosophy should not be just another speciality, as it is occasionally represented as being.
The great issues of our time are philosophical problems. They have to do with question
of right, justice freedom, man, society, and nature. Tomorrow’s inventions will not make them
obsolote. Philosophical problems are not only central but timeless “No civilization can survive”,
says Robert Ulich. “without a deeper and uniting definition of truths and values. Only the
mediocic person is satisfied with a mass of incoherent and isolated knowledge”. Facts alone are
not enough. The mature person wants to understand himself, the society in which he lives, and
his relation to the universe. Philosophy provides the means of enabling the student to
systematize, assimulate, and evaluate the huge mass of knowledge. Philosophical reflection or
discussion is one of the best means by which to develop perspective.
In statement on the function of philosophy in liberal arts program, one teacher of
philosophy said :
Philosophy has traditionally been a foundation stone for the liberal arts education of
college student, in humanistic area. It should be admitted that philosophy, as the “love o f
Wisdom”, cannot, in the ordinary sense, be taught. It is not a skill like typewriting, nor a science
like physics. It is closer to the arts, in that the teacher of philosophy can only hope to evoke from
the student a deep and enduring desire to pursue, lovingly and religiously, the wisdom that will
give hiswhole life a more profound meaning in relation to himself and to others.
Nevertheless, the academic aspect of philosophy can reasonably expect to instruct the
student in the history of ideas and ideals pf great philosophers, so that the wisdom of others ,ay
be utilized by the student in finding his own wisdom of life. We may also expect to provide the
student with some skill in logical or discursive thinking, as an intellectual tool for seeking
wisdom.
 Since, in philosophy, we may philosophize about anything, we find that our course work
may be devoted to such subjects as philosophy of religion, philosophy of morality(ethics),
philosophy of law, philosophy of the arts (asethetics) and literature, philosophy of science,
philosophy of history, etc. In all such areas we desire to provide the student with some basic
insight into liberal arts subjects and to satisfy his need to relate that insight to an intellectually
balanced and emotionally mature way of life.
Underlying all traditional philosophy is metaphysics- the inquiry into nature of ultimate
reality, and into the nature of knowledge, meaning and truth. Analysis of these fundamentak
questions, which pervade all the great philosophical systems, and all of our courses, serves to
make the student sensitive to the often naive character of his won viewson these all important
problems. His intellectual perspectives are broadened and liberalized so that he may become
consciously and sympathetically aware of honestly differing opinions on these subjects. In the
type of world in which we are living where metaphysical differences make a difference (e.g, the
dialectical materialism of communism versus a Christian conception of God and man) it is
essential that we become clearly cognizant of the grounds for these differences. To live
adequately in our world is to live with compassionate understandingof our ideological
differences. The study of philosophy may hpe the engender such understanding.

WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION?

Writers on education do not always agree on the precise course of studies that should constitute a
liberal education. There is, however, considerable agreement that liberal education has some if not all of
the following aims

1. It should train men to think critically and constructively

2. It should give some insight into moral, aesthetic, and religious values, and help men to
disriminate between values
3. It should train men for constructive citizenship in a free and growing society that is, it should
make men free and enable them to use their freedom wisely
4. While liberal education, as such, is not aimed directly at the acquisition of special or technical
skills, it should give the intellectual background necessary to succes in bussines and professional
areas.

During recent years many commissions and special groups have been studying liberal education and
its role in modern society. In a report, the Commission on liberal Education of Assocation of
American Colleges says :

The purpose of a liberal education is to help man to acqure certain human qualities that
manifest themselves in characteristic is the kind of men and womwn it poroduces. In a democracy,
liberal education should be of value to men and women both as private individuals and as free self
reliant, and responsible members of the community to which they belong. It should help them as
individuals to grow in self mastery and personal depth to develop wider and deeper appreciations to
acquire and enthusiasm for hard work, to love good talk and good books, to delight in the
adventures of intellectual curiosity, to become fair minded, open minded and generous in all their
human responses.

SOME TESTS OF A WELL EDUCATED PERSON

At almost every college commencement some senior holds out his diploma before his friend says,
“well, here’s the proof i’am educated”. To some persons “being educated” means getting through
college and getting a degree of some kind. Needless to say, this attitude, if seriously held, is quite
wrong. Mere possession of a diploma or any other symbol, for that matter is no proof education.

There are certain characteristics which identify the educated man

1. A well educated person knows at least one field with some thoroughness. Education should
be in part a preparation for one’s vocation. The principal danger today is not to much that
students will neglect this practical element in an education but rather that many will wish to
stop at this point
2. To be educated means to be able to communicate with other persons to be able to speak
and to write one’s native language with a high degree of competence. Persons live in a small
and isolated world if they cannot communicate freely with others. It is highly desirable that
an educated person know at least one language besides his native tongue. Knowledge of a
foreign language enables a person to learn also about foreign culture, in this way he not
only broadens his understanding but perhaps extend the range of his sympathy and his
tolerance as well. Only through the medium of communication are we able to acquire the
understanding of our rich cultural heritage so essential for the development of the
individual.
In some studies of competentlytrained specialist who were not succeeding very well
accountants and engineers, for example the difficulty was found to be in their inability to
communicate. They were unable to write clear and effective reports or to go before groups,
such as Boards of Directors, and state their views or findings adequately. Ideas that cannot
be imparted or made clear to others lose their effectiveness.
3. To be educated means to be able to live in a changing world and to entertain new ideas.
Change is characteristic of our age. In sense every age is an age of change, but in our time
changes have come with a rush. The fact that ours is a dynamic time createsnew problem.
Our education, if it is to be effective, must prepare us to live in a world of change and new
ideas. History, as someone has said, is “ahead of schedule”. With the splitting of the atom
and the release of great new sources of energy, and the wonders of the new space age, we
are likely to see even more significant changes ahead. Our ability to entertain new ideas is,
then, particularly important today.
The attitude people take toward change is one of the most revealing things about them.
There are the “stand patters”who resist change and shrink from anything that is different.
They seem to believe that nothing should ever be done for the first time, yet this attitude, if
universally adopted, would lead to stagnation. At the opposite extreme are the “ root and
 branch” people, who want to get rid of everything that is old. The revolutionists would
destroy the ancient good as well as the evil. Between the stand patters and the
revolutionists are those who seek to retain the old values and the good of the past while
displaying a readiness to use new discoveries and insight. They want a dynamic integration
of the past and present. They realize that the present has grown out of the past and they
want the future to grow out of the present by a process of orderly and intelligent change.
4. To be educated means to be able to get along with others. This problem of living
cooperatively with other persons and groups is one of the major problema of our age. The
history of civilization is in part the story of man’s learning to become involved in larger and
larger relationships. The progress of the “we” concept from familiy to tribe, to clan, to
nation, and now the struggle for world order are all a part of this development. We need to
learn to be interested in others, to be able to entertain them, and to live peacefully
together. To be educated is to achieve an understanding of the statement “We are
members one of another”. This is problem of all group living.
We need a new emphasis on the right to live. If a man does not become interested in the
vital rights of other men and stand ready to defend them, he will soon find his own interests
and rights endangered. Unless a community is prepared to use its combined efforts for the
defense of a single victim of lawless violence or other injustice, there can be neither law, nor
justice, nor freedom. This principle, which has been emphasized by mature moral codes the
world over, applies with equal force to nations and to individuals.
5. To be well educated means to be able to entertain oneself, to develop a rich inner life and a
wide range of appreciations and inner controls. Real education takes place within. A person
needs to develop a wide range of interests so that he feels in good company even when
alone. Some persons apparently arye so shallow within that they are literally “bored to
tears” if they have to spend an hour or two by themselves. They must turn on the radio or
television, or gain entertainment from some other external source, so that their attention
is directed outward.
In general, we apparently have been changing as a people from inner directed to outer or
other directed persons. Once we prized individually and diversity, now we seem to try to be
like everyone else. What we are losing is integrity—the integrity of the person who does his
own thinking, achieves and follows his own sense of a scale of values and lives by some
personal philosophy of life.
If a man does what he does merely because of the pressure of custom, the law, fear, or
other outside pressure, he is not in the highest sense a mature person. If the authority in life
is external, a man tend to resist it or become docile. If the controls are inner and self
chosen, they are followed with greater ease and energy. Something inside the person must
give the motivation and the drive. Self control or inner discipline is a prerequisite to
achievement in any field. Wether it is in sports, the sciences, or the humanities.
6. To be educated is to be sensitive to the larger spiritual order to which man is related. Man’s
life is not self contained. He has linkages with a reality beyond him which reinforces him and
with which he may have fellowship. Man is creature who is involved in the flux nature, yet
he is conscious of his involvement. Therefore, he is not totally involved. Man is an animal
organism, it is true, but he is able to study himself as an organism and to compare and
interpret living forms and inquire about the meaning of human existence. To do so he must
be able in some sense to stand outside of, or to transcend, the life and conditions which he
judges and compares. Man lives at the point where nature and spirit somehow meet.
An outstanding philosopher and psychologist, William james, reffered to what he called a
“More” which surrounds man’s life and which he experiences . when man enters into
harmonious relation with the “More”, energy flows into his life and new zest and assurance
are added. All peoples have had this same experience but their interpretations or
descriptive symbols have varied. For the early Greeks it was the Logos, for the Hindus it is
Brahman, for the Hebrew Christians it is God or Spirit.
Early in the century, Dr William Rainey Harper, outstanding president of the university
of Chicago, made a short but significant speech to a group of entering freshmen. As
reported by one member of the group, he said.
Young gentlemen, you have come here in hope furthering your education. If you are to do
this, it would be well for you to have some idea of what an educated human being is. Then
you will know what to aim at here, what thhis institution exists to assist you to become. An
educated man is man who by the time he as twenty five years old has a clear theory,
formed in the light of human experience down the ages, of what constitutes a satisfying life,
a significant life, and who by the age of thirty has moral philosophy consonant with racial
experience. If man reaches these age without having arrived at such a theory, such a
philosophy, then no matter hoe many facts he has learned or how many processes he has
mastered, the ma is ignoramus and a fool, unhappy, probably dangerous. That is all.dod