Philosophy of Education 5:1

CD/mp3 199, first part of fifth Cincinnati lecture on philosophy of education. Corresponds to CWL 10: 103-19. Sponsored by an anonymous donor. There are corollaries of the notion of the horizon of the subject. First, there is a fundamental truth in what are called 'active methods' in education. Second, broadening of the horizon cannot be done simply on the basis of the attained organization of the student. Third, only with intellectual differentiation does moral education become distinct from other elements of education, but one can distinguish ethics of law and ethics of achievement, with its notion of vocation in a general sense. Finally, the fundamental problem for philosophy of education is the horizon of the educationalist. Next, Lonergan moves to the new learning. It is new not insofar as there are material additions but in the sense that the very idea of learning itself and of the structure of knowledge has been developed. His starting point is Scholastic theories of intellect. Lonergan begins with the ontological structure of intellect in Aquinas and contrasts it with the Scotist position. We can speak not merely of a metaphysical potency called intellect but also of an intelligence that we all have and experience. There are implications for teaching: (1) insight grasping the intelligible in the sensible is a conscious process that people can be helped in; (2) what Aquinas calls the illumination of phantasm means moving into the intellectual pattern of experience; (3) you understand you can define, and the teacher can help students pick out all that is necessary for understanding and only that. What differs from one period to another is by and large the expression of understanding. There are differences in explicitness of conceiving. Again, commonsense understanding is one thing, and the ability to define is something else. And reasoning depends on accurate definition of terms. From reasoning one can move to science. The specific Greek achievement is the formulation of the intellectual pattern of experience.

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