Macrobius
Megaphoron
A Pedagogical Preface to Thomism
Text of https://pastebin.com/raw/Ux8yr5Bt Notice the title of this piece is 'a pedagogical preface to Thomism' and not 'an Introduction'. That means I won't be teaching you Thomism, but only the subjects you need in order to make that attempt yourself. Largely, this means, a minimal...
Text of https://pastebin.com/raw/Ux8yr5Bt
Notice the title of this piece is 'a pedagogical preface to Thomism' and not 'an Introduction'. That means I won't be teaching you Thomism, but only the subjects you need in order to make that attempt yourself. Largely, this means, a minimal introduction to the Liberal Arts. The 'Liberal Arts' are the Technical Toolkit for Freedom -- and thus necessary to any Scientific or Philosophical Pursuit.
Now, this slim book cannot propose to teach to you even 'all of the liberal arts'. There are ten of those -- the seven liberal disciplines, which are taught to children (_liberi_) from the youngest age, and which are divided into the Trivium (Latin and Greek Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic and Dialect), and the Quadrivium of STEM[1] Subjects -- Number Theory, Geometry, Wave Phenomena (Music), and Astronomy; followed by the 'Three Philosophies' of Medicine, Civil Law, and Divinity (Theology). That is the full scope of the 'Liberal Arts' before the sundering of 'Science' and the 'Humanities'.
[1]: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
If I taught you all that, you would for reasons we will soon discuss, have completed the full courses of Grammar School, the first two years of a four year college (adding to your first diploma two more -- Rhetoric and Logic degrees). You would then possess in addition both a Bachelor's and Master's degree, the minimum prerequisite for teaching the Trivium and Quadrivium yourself, and on top of that you would have secured an M.D. in Medicine (or a Ph.D. in its theoretical cousin, Physics-Chemistry-Biology), a J.D. in Law, and a D.D. in in Divinity (Theology).
I can't do that in a single slim volume! And yet we are in a cultural and educational crisis that demands some kind of remediation.
What exactly is the nature of this crisis? If we look at education in the United States and Soviet Union, as it stood in the immediate aftermath of the wars of the early 20th century, in 1950 or 1960, we would see educational institutions that, while manifestly deficient in certain ways (indeed causing those wars), delivered an education that was recognisably similar to the Prussian Gymnasium as it developed from 1800 to 1914. In comparison to today, you could almost call it a CLASSICAL education.
The primary 'concern' among American educators in the 1960, was that the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik, perhaps opening a 'missile gap' with the Communists. This suggested the need to improve American education in STEM subjects, so as to meet that challenge.
After the crisis of 1968-1975 (the Nixon Coup), and the rise of the Neo-Liberal State in the West, by say the 1992 American election (end of the First Gulf War followed by the strategic bombing of Serbia in the West), the Soviet Union had collapsed and -- less frequently observed at the time -- so had the United States, at least as regards its institutions.
American Universities succumbed to Marxism, doubtless as part of the final struggle with the Soviets and Chinese and perhaps with some encouragement from them, starting in 1968, as already documented in Allan Bloom's work _The Closing of the American Mind_. One can say with some justice that the prophecy of Elder Ignatius of Harbin came true in this period: 'What started in Russia will end in America'.[2]
[2]: https://orthodoxprophecies.wordpres...gnatius-of-harbin-his-prophecy-about-america/
In the middle of this period, there was still some continued understanding of 'Classical Education', especially in the Parochial and Jesuit schools, which were less immediately affected by the disturbances of the late 60s, or at least in the same way.
Someone educated in the 60s through the 90s would mostly need some supplementation to the education they received, especially in the subject of Logic, in the STEM subjects if they did not 'major' in one of those, and some remediation in the Classical languages and History -- yet nothing TOO serious. For some, the education was serviceable for taking up Science or Philosophy (the same thing, we shall soon learn).
After the early 90s, the generation down to 2023 faces a much harder task unless they were (competently) homeschooled or else extremely fortunate to have some holdover teachers from the previous generation, or natural autodidacts with access to first libraries and then the cornucopia of the Internet, which partly compensated for the loss of institutions, among the more motivated students.
In effect, children educated after the early 90s, by and large, are not 'educated' at all, in either American or Soviet senses, which is to say in the late stages of the German Gymnasium system, after its post-War collapse. (I cannot speak about education in Russia today, or even Europe, and I am narrowing my observations to America alone).
I hope this slender volume will, somewhat on the model of St Isidore of Seville's, _Etymologies_,[3] provide an encyclopedic but also BRIEF introduction to the topics most necessary for an adult learner (or an adult home-educator with homeschooled children) to pursue
[3]: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667863 St Isidore is the patron saint of the Internet.
I foresee three classes of people might be interested in this work: 1/ those interested in homeschooling children with a classical Christian education (CCE) 2/ persons with a STEM background who want to know more about the Liberal Arts and make an entry into the Thomist Philosophy, and 3/ a third class of persons who understand the urgency of the political philosophy of Scholasticism (in general) and ST Thomas Aquinas (in particular) for our current political crisis, in both its cultural and educational dimension, and its more political and military aspects.
The broader needs of the first two are to be handled in an Encyclopedia (a Curriculum for Paideia), subject by subject and going into the full depth of the Liberal Disciplines and the Three Philosophies -- for reasons that do not need to retain us.
All three groups, I hope, will profit from this 'quick refresher' of needful topics. The primary challenge of course, is how much time one has to put into such a project! If one is a mother pregnant with her first child, or her husband, then one has 14 years to spend on the project -- not 18 because as I will soon explain the modern college has strayed so far from its original purpose one might as well conclude one's parenting and tutelage of the child, successfully, around the age the child is first ready to begin philsophising on his own. With proper Classical Education, this will be around the end of 'Junior High' or 'Middle School' (in American terms) and the 'High School Years' can be devoted to a full Liberal Arts 'college education', as it would have been called in 1950 or 1960, followed by 'professional studies'.
If, on the other hand, one is already a scientist, or educated in one of the STEM fields, you do not want to spend three years doing what would have been the 'first three forms' (or grades) of a Grammar School education, in the 17th or 18th century. As an adult learner, you can move at 2-3 times the pace of a child, but it will still take time you most likely do not have.
Both these 'tracks' -- the Track 1 Classical track and the Track 2 Modern, Technical Track, would benefit from a quick 'jump start' into the Liberal Disciplines however. What are they, what do the words mean, what books can I read to acquire the bare minimum quickly.
For our third group, those seeking civil and political solutions to the current crisis, the matter is even more urgent. It is not only evident you do not have three years to spend on this project, but you may not even have three months! Things are moving fast.
Hence, this book, make of it what you will. I will give longer and more extended instructions on how to access all the materials shortly.
https://macrobius.substack.com is a good coordination point, and will carry a serialized version of this book, which is as usually freely available for any profit the reader is able to make of it.
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