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Aquinas's Views on Teaching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Patrick Quinn
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As a teacher and philosopher, Thomas Aquinas sets out to investigate the nature of pedagogical activity in his treatise, On the Teacher in Articles 1-4, Question 11 of the Disputed Questions on Truth. His analysis of teaching and of the teacher’s role are informed, as one might expect, by his epistemological views and theological beliefs. One of the first issues that Aquinas has to confront is a theological one, namely, whether or not one can describe any human being as a teacher if one believes that God is the pre-eminent teacher as the primary source of all knowledge. While the latter proposition may seem rather problematic to contemporary Western thought, it was an acceptable issue for discussion in Aquinas’s time and is formulated by him in various ways in a number of the objections cited at the beginning of Article 1. Many of these appear to originate from the Augustinian tradition, together with some others from scriptural sources, and all of them argue along the lines that the Christian belief in God’s noetic power is difficult to reconcile with our human capacity to function freely as independent cognitive beings. In terms of pedagogy, this becomes a debate about the very existence of an authentic human pedagogy if God is believed to be teacher par excellence. Aquinas decides to deal with this problem at the outset.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 82 , Issue 961 , March 2001 , pp. 108 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 The translation of the text used here is that of McGlynn in St. Thomas Aquinas The Disputed Questions on Truth Vol. II. trans. by McGlynn, James V. SJ, Henry Regnery Company, pl , 195Google Scholar, pp. 77‐101.

2 See objections 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16 and 17 Article 1.3; Aquinas compares teaching and healing in a number of places. Cf. also De Ver. 11, Art. 2 & 2 ad 6.

3 See Gadamer on this in Dialogue and Dialectic, Gadamer, Hans‐Georg, trans. by Smith, P. Christopher, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1980, pp. 73‐92Google Scholar.

4 Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein, trans. G.E.M. Anscombe. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1974, p. vii.

5 Recollections of Wittgenstein, ed. Rush Rhees. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1974, p. 170.

6 The Enigma of Health, Hans Georg Gadamer, trans. by Nicholas Gaiger and Nicholas Walker, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 32‐33.

7 In his writings, Marcel insists on constantly drawing attention to the mystery of being and of interpersonal presence. See, for example, The Philosophy of Existence, Marcel, Gabriel, trans. by Harari, Manya. Harvill Press, London, 1948, pp. 1‐31Google Scholar and Mystery of Being Vol. I, Marcel, Gabriel, Gateway Editions, South Bend, Indiana, 1978, pp. 197‐219Google Scholar.

8 See Quinn, Patrick, “Faith as Noetic Power in the Writings of Aquinas” in The Propagation of Power in the Medieval West, ed. by Gosman, Martin, Vandeijagt, Mo & Veenstra, Jan, Forsten, Egbert, Groningen, 1997, pp. 313‐325Google Scholar.

9 See Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire, Paulo, trans. by Ramos, Myra Bergman, Penguin Books Ltd., Middlesex, 1972Google Scholar; Cultural Action for Freedom, Freire, Paulo, Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1972Google Scholar; Education. The Practice of Freedom. Freire, Paulo, Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, 1976Google Scholar; The Politics of Education, Freire, Paulo, trans. by Macedo, Donaldo, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., Hampshire, 1985CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 I am indebted to my daughter Barbara for this succinct definition of teaching as shared knowledge.

11 The possible intellect (intellectus possibile) in Aquinas's terminology refers to the capacity of the mind to understand as distinct the mind actively seeking understanding.

12 At the beginning of the discussion in ST I. 117. 1, he discusses Averroes' views on the intellect rather than those of Avicenna (in De Vex 11.1).

13 Aquinas gives as an example of this, putting before a student some sense‐based illustrations which suggest similarities and differences.

14 Note the Aristotelian references in De Ver. 11.1 and ST I. 117.1.

15 Wittgenstein makes some interesting claims on this in Philosophical Investigations, p. 2e et seq.

16 See Aquinas, Platonism and the Knowledge of God. Quinn, Patrick, Avebury, Ashgate, Aldershot, 1996, pp. 43‐44Google Scholar.

17 See Plotinus on guardian angels in Plotinus The Enneads, trans. by MacKenna, Stephen, introd. & ed. by Dillon, John, Penguin Books. 1991. pp. 166‐173Google Scholar.

18 See my Aquinas, Platonism and the Knowledge of God, pp. 48‐50 and 52‐65 and also my article. “Aquinas's Model of Mind” in New Blackfriars, Vol. 77, No. 904 , May 1996, pp. 215–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 See my Aquinas, Platonism and the Knowledge of God, pp. 70‐71 for some related remarks on a somewhat similar topic.

20 See, for example, ST II‐II. 172.2.

21 See, for example, ST II‐II. 182.2. His point here is of some contemporary relevance in that living a contemplative religious life today, say as a Carthusian monk or Buddhist priest, may be questioned at least in Western society, in terms of its usefulness.

22 See ST II‐II 180.I et seq.

23 See Aquinas, Platonism and the Knowledge of God, pp. 83‐87.

24 This again suggest, as mentioned earlier, the universality of teaching as a human process which maps all human discourse, since human communication concerns externally directing our thoughts towards others.

25 There is an interesting link up here between Aquinas's concept of the teacher in the role of teacher‐as‐student when conceiving, considering and enjoying knowledge, and his concept of the student as the one‐taught‐by‐the‐teacher. The latter student, of course, must also enjoy a contemplative as well as active role in that she must also reach a stage of conceiving, considering and enjoying whatever knowledge is communicated by the teacher.

26 St. Thomas was proclaimed Angelic Doctor in 1527.