The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of DublinNewman, John Henry
Religion
The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin
Newman, John Henry
Education, Higher; Universities and colleges
Knowledge, in proportion as it tends more and more to be particular,
ceases to be Knowledge. It is a question whether Knowledge can in any
proper sense be predicated of the brute creation; without pretending to
metaphysical exactness of phraseology, which would be unsuitable to an
occasion like this, I say, it seems to me improper to call that passive
sensation, or perception of things, which brutes seem to possess, by the
name of Knowledge. When I speak of Knowledge, I mean something
intellectual, something which grasps what it perceives through the senses;
something which takes a view of things; which sees more than the senses
convey; which reasons upon what it sees, and while it sees; which invests
it with an idea. It expresses itself, not in a mere enunciation, but by an
enthymeme: it is of the nature of science from the first, and in this
consists its dignity. The principle of real dignity in Knowledge, its
worth, its desirableness, considered irrespectively of its results, is
this germ within it of a scientific or a philosophical process. This is
how it comes to be an end in itself; this is why it admits of being called
Liberal. Not to know the relative disposition of things is the state of
slaves or children; to have mapped out the Universe is the boast, or at
least the ambition, of Philosophy.
Moreover, such knowledge is not a mere extrinsic or accidental advantage,
which is ours to-day and another’s to-morrow, which may be got up from a
book, and easily forgotten again, which we can command or communicate at
our pleasure, which we can borrow for the occasion, carry about in our
hand, and take into the market; it is an acquired illumination, it is a
habit, a personal possession, and an inward endowment. And this is the
reason, why it is more correct, as well as more usual, to speak of a
University as a place of education, than of instruction, though, when
knowledge is concerned, instruction would at first sight have seemed the
more appropriate word. We are instructed, for instance, in manual
exercises, in the fine and useful arts, in trades, and in ways of
business; for these are methods, which have little or no effect upon the
mind itself, are contained in rules committed to memory, to tradition, or
to use, and bear upon an end external to themselves. But education is a
higher word; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the
formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is
commonly spoken of in connexion with religion and virtue. When, then, we
speak of the communication of Knowledge as being Education, we thereby
really imply that that Knowledge is a state or condition of mind; and
since cultivation of mind is surely worth seeking for its own sake, we are
thus brought once more to the conclusion, which the word “Liberal” and the
word “Philosophy” have already suggested, that there is a Knowledge, which
is desirable, though nothing come of it, as being of itself a treasure,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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