PHL 3305 Lecture 7

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When reading,

  • the reader is the most important stuff to which to pay attention
  • the text will provide commentary

Read 3 times (Dr. Lehman promises they'll be short!)

  1. Get a general sense of what's going on
  2. Divide the reading into 2-4 components/parts to find how the parts relate to each other
  3. Read to let nothing get past you
    • terms and definitions
    • syllogisms
    • make notes of anything that is confusing

For Next Time

  • Give primacy to the General Introduction from the Logic Text

Newman, Cont'd

  • Central thesis: Knowledge is its own end (versus knowledge as a utility)

Newman claims:

  • Knowledge has no bearing on one's beliefs, actions, or will
    • knowledge should be morality-agnostic

I disagree.

  • Knowledge for its own sake drives a wedge between intellectual and moral formation
  • Knowledge itself becomes the moral code
  • Separating intellect from morals removes unity of Catholic liberal education
  • Knowledge forms foundation of morality
    • to become prudent, one has to know what prudence looks like

We seek the beauty that is the perfection of the intellect:

There is a physical beauty and a moral: there is a beauty of person, there is a beauty of our moral being, which is natural virtue; and in like manner there is a beauty, there is a perfection, of the intellect.

Only the Lover Sings

Josef Pieper

Like in the Republic by Plato, music plays a huge role in the formation of the soul

  • Music is more than just what you listen to: it is metaphorical of the harmony/balance/order of everything