Is Virtue a Constitutive End of a Liberal Arts Education? -- Or, Can Virtue Be Taught?

By John Creech

In further reflection on the Center for the American Republic's recent program, "The Education of the Founding Fathers," as well as in anticipation of the Center's upcoming program on Dawson's The Crisis of Western Education, I wanted to offer some thoughts and encourage discussion on the question of whether education in general and a liberal arts education, in particular, can or should teach persons to be virtuous.  Both Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman in his Idea of a University, as well as, Russell Kirk, in an essay entitled "Can Virtue Be Taught?" offer what might be considered surprising answers.  

For Newman, liberal education as the acquisition of systematic knowledge of the whole of reality for its own sake, or in the case of physical activity, the enjoyment of the activity itself and in its excellent execution, does not aim at anything beyond itself - not at wealth, health, fortune, or fame.  Similarly, that which makes education liberal is not the acquisition of virtue, for that would subordinate such education to some extrinsic good, and the essential characteristic of an education that makes it liberal is precisely its intrinsic good, the fact that its value does not depend on some good outside itself.  Consequently, while liberal education may very well provide one with the knowledge and discipline that makes virtue possible, its essence and worth does not depend on making students virtuous.  For this reason, Newman concludes:

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view of faith.  Philosophy, however, enlightened, however, profound, give no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles.  Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.  It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life; -- these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge...they are the objects...I am advocating; I shal illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless....(The Idea of a University 91, Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman)  

(Continue reading at Center for American Republic Blog)

Economics: “The Not-So-Dismal Science”?

by Alex Meregaglia

Wilhelm Roepke

The title of this post takes its name, in part, from a speech that William McGurn delivered recently at Hillsdale College. Mr. McGurn served as the chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush from 2006-2008 and is currently the vice president of News Corporation. In his speech, Mr. McGurn sought to look at the claim that economists deserve the label of “dismal science.”

He argued that economics should not be viewed a dismal science – a horrible libel started by Thomas Carlyle – but rather as a worthwhile endeavor necessary for any society that wants to be free. Citing the use of economics in ending slavery and debunking the population bubble myths of the 1970s, he wanted economists recognized for offering “a more hopeful way forward.” Economists stepped to the forefront in those debates of the 1860s and of a century later to counter the arguments of the “progressives, artists and humanitarians” and support freedom and life. In short, men and women the most when they are free. While those points merit discussion, they are not the focus of this short essay.

“Not Written for Children”: An Introduction to the Short Stories of Russell Kirk

By Alex Meregaglia

As Russell Kirk recounted in “A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale,” all ghost tales must have “some clear premise about the character of human existence – some theological premise” according to Gerald Head (402). Kirk certainly took this to heart when writing his numerous ghostly tales over some thirty-year period. Taken as a whole, the stories show a progression over time, made by Kirk, with regard to the subject matter and themes. Following a natural progression likely based on Kirk’s own life, the stories increasingly focused on salvation, grace, and heaven, and other religious ideas, perhaps coinciding with Kirk’s maturation in his faith. Two early stories, though, revolved around a subject that Kirk built his entire career and reputation on: politics.

Less directly concerned with theological themes and motives, Kirk made social commentary the prominent theme in “Ex Tenebris” and “Behind the Stumps,” the first two stories of editor Vigen Guroian’s Ancestral Shadows, an anthology of Kirk’s short stories (Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004). That is not to say, however, that theology lay dormant in those early endeavors into fiction. Rather, it merely simmered in the background, while the issue of government intervention, social planning, and concern with the quantifiable occupied the foreground. Indeed, in “Ex Tenebris” (Latin for “out of darkness”) the reader meets S.G.W. Barner, a government planning officer, who desired to leave “not one stone…upon another at Low Wentford” (5). To accomplish this end, Mr. Barner needed to evict the “ancient” Mrs. Oliver, the only living soul in the war-destroyed neighborhood, and destroy her cottage. From the outset, Kirk opposes the character of Mr. Barner (representing those that want detailed community planning) with that of Mrs. Oliver (representing those that want to cherish the past and be left alone), juxtaposing for his audience the tension of the progressives and conservatives. Mr. Barner sees little use for what is old: “Ruins are reminiscent of the past; and the Past is a dead hand impeding progressive planning” (5). Mrs. Oliver is weak, potentially crazy, and unable to hold out against Mr. Barner much longer. To rectify this and to bring the story into his style, Kirk introduces a ghostly, shadowy figure to Mrs. Oliver, Vicar Hargreaves, who is of questionable substance and occupation (Hargreaves claims to be the vicar at the church that is partially remaining in Low Wentford). Kirk uses this apparition as the protagonist who comforts Mrs. Oliver and eliminates the pest of Mr. Barner. The “moral imagination” Kirk seeks to cultivate is respect for the past and a disdain for progressive plans that impersonally impose a grand design on others without accounting for tradition, or, for that matter, what is best for those it is forced upon. He uses the other wordly for positive purposes in this world, namely, to combat evil. Mrs. Oliver, despite her peculiarities, triumphs in the end.