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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Refuge from Education Nonsense and a Guide to Bona Fide Learning,
This review is from: Escape from Skepticism: Liberal Education As If Truth Mattered (Paperback)
As this reviewer mentioned elsewhere, whenever there are media comments and "political debates"(those ad hominem childish exchanges between bought-and-paid-for candidates),he retreats into the den and reads serious political comments and debates written centuries earlier such as THE FEDERALIST PAPERS, THE ANTIFEDERALIST PAPERS, etc. Christopher Derrick's book titled ESCAPE FROM SCEPTICISM:LIBERAL EDUCATION AS IF TRUTH MATTERED is a refuge when education "experts" give their vapid, empty comments about teaching and learning. Those who are familiar with John Henry Newman's book titled THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY have a similar book as this one, and both are worth reading. Derrick "cuts through the smog" and shows that in too many colleges and universities that "The emperor is wearing no clothes." ESCAPE FROM SCEPTICISM not only tells readers what is wrong, but the book suggests what is right with useful anecdotes and examples.
Derrick first gives a good working definition of the Liberal Arts and the actual meaning of the Liberal Arts curriculum. Medieval historians trace the concept of the Liberal Arts to the late Ancient philosopher Boethius (c.480-524 AD). The Medieval Scholastics divided the Seven Liberal Arts into the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic) and the Quadrivium (Arithmetic/Geometry, Music, Astronomy, and Music). Those who successfully completed the Trivium were awarded the Bachelor of Arts Degree, and those who successfully completed the Trivium and Quadrivium were awared the Master of Arts Degree. Advanced studies included Medicine, Law, and Theology which was regarded The Queen of the Sciences and was considered to encompass comprehensive knowledge. Readers should have a concept of the Liberal Arts to fully appreciate this book. Derrcick considers the tragedy of modern "education" when so called "experts" eliminate the Liberal Arts studies. As Derrick noted the Liberal Arts started the universiteis whose current "leaders" want to destroy the bedrock of what used to make universities great. The subsitutes are vapid nonense and modern nonsense. Derrick scoffs at the notion that those who have a solid Liberal Arts background cannot be gainfully employed. He makes a keen observation that any man or woman who can read well (Grammar), speak and write clearly(Rhetoric), and think reasonably (logic), can be successfully employed in the practical business and profession world. As an aside, professional and business executives have told this reviewer that they often look for Liberal Arts graduates whom they say are better read and write well. Yet, Derrick gives another solid reason for the Liberal Arts curriculum. Derrick states that civilized men and women should considere ultimate questions such as Man's Destiny, Good vs. Evil, Ethics, etc. These concepts determine civiliation and civilized behavior which is presently in grave danger. Those who do not want to use the Liberal Arts curriculum should reflect on financial, political, and social scandals of supposedly bright men and women. One may ask why study the Liberal Arts, and Derrick's answer is that such studies are a serious investigation of truth or at least some part of truth. Derrick is clear that truth is not static but unveiling. Studies of history, science, mathematics, etc. have advanced significantly in modern history, and many of those whose achievements are noteworthy came from a Liberal Arts background. These men and women were well read, wrote concisely, and used reason to assist in their investigations. However, as Derrick shows, militant scepticism has imposed new standards or non-standards. Teachers, parents, and students now think that there is no such thing as objective truth,and any opinion or nonsense is as good as another. Just do not tell the patient or anyone who wants to live in a high-rise building that. Derrick cites one critic who wrote that the sceptic is so detatched that he cannot ask a valid question, give a valid answer, or even defend his fundamental scepticism if there are no certainties or what is called a priori assumptions. Derrick deplores the dirt-hair-shabbiness culture of too many colleges and universities. He views this as loss of self respect and loss of respect for the dignity of teaching and learning. Derrcik has the idea that college students should be taught to be ladies and gentlemen in the best sense of the these terms. He also deplores that any knowledgable man or woman is somehow to be viewed as a snob and elitist. Again, one can imagine someone telling a surgeon or an architect that he is an elitist tyrant for trying to save a patient's life or design a safe structure because the physican or architect knows more than others about their professions. Alas, young people may actually learn something from their better educated elders. Derrick has yet another reason stated or implied in the above paragraphs. The Liberal Arts teach us to be human and civilized. Derrick would agree with Hazlitt's remark that a society built solely on full employment and national defense is more suited to an ant colony than human beings. In other words, the Liberal Arts teach us what it means to be human and humane. Derrick concludes this book by endorsing what he considers a bona fide Catholic college. He makes reference to St. Thomas Aquinas' commentary on the use of reason and clear thinking to understand "the human condition." One should note that St. Thomas Aquinas'mentor was St. Alebertus Magnus who did comprehensive work in the studies of optics, scientific experiments, the scientific method, astronomy, medicine, etc. and is the patron saint of astronomers and universities. Both men emerged from studying the Liberal Arts. Derrick's little book is optimistic. He is aware that young college students can be taught to reason, discern fact from fiction, and equip themselves to increase their learning if they can read well, think logically,and write clearly and concisely. In other words, students can learn on their own if well grounded in the Liberal Arts.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful argument about true "liberal education"...,
By
This review is from: Escape from Skepticism: Liberal Education As If Truth Mattered (Paperback)
(My review is for the original 1977 edition...the 112-page paperback. It is possible the 2001 edition, which seems to have 39 more pages, may be a wiser purchase.) In this challenging, well-written and always interesting essay, Catholic philosopher and educator Derrick presented his critique of several trends prevalent in 1976 America: philosophy taught as if the freedom to believe anything or nothing, or that all beliefs have equal value, was the point; "liberal arts" college educations in which the 18-to-21- year-old students were treated as if they were already wise enough to pick their own subjects to study; "Catholic" colleges which do not conform to traditional Catholic teaching or let that doctrine inform ALL subjects, and many more observations worthy of consideration, even if, as I have, the reader ultimately disagrees with Christopher. I wish I had been loaned the updated version by the friend who sent this to me for comment, because life in college and in the Church and in the world seems quite a bit different than it was 25 years ago. When Mr. Derrick created his book, there were far fewer "non-traditional" students seeking bachelor's degrees than we find today. One wonders if he would change some of his analysis based on their needs and gifts and life experiences. Also, the position of the Roman Catholic Church in American life has sustained some hard blows, especially from the sex abuse scandals (which were beginning to be publicized 20 years ago, not just in the past two years as many non-Catholics might think.) While Derrick takes pains to separate his belief in the Catholic Church as the One True Faith from "current" beliefs and actions of fallible priests, bishops and theologians, he was writing before John Paul II became Pope and before the cover-ups and excusing of active gay and sex-offending clergy became an issue. As an Englishman, Derrick notes that his personal life experience of growing up Catholic differs greatly from the experiences of Catholic immigrants to America, and he explains that difference cogently. If you have a professional or personal interest in Catholicism, in "Catholic" colleges, in philosophy and how it is taught as an academic subject, or in "liberal arts education" as a concept, this book is valuable. You certainly do not have to convert 100 percent to Derrick-ism to find many of his ideas meritorious. I attended a non-religious college, but converted to Catholicism at 20 and stayed more or less in the fold until past 40. I am neither an academic nor an intellectual, but I recognized myself in many spots within Mr. Derrick's book,usually in unflattering descriptions, from his viewpoint. He would most likely not respect my philosophy, if I can be said to have one at nearly 58 years of age, or my new religious choice, or think my education very useful. While he did not persuade me to his point of view entirely, he challenged my beliefs on every other page, which is why it took me three weeks to read this short book. Often, the 30 seconds it took to read a sentence or two made me put the book down and think about whether he was right or not for hours, or even days. An author who can do that to an opinionated geezer is pretty skilled indeed.
4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Conversation is not an adequate substitute for investigation,
By A Customer
This review is from: Escape from Skepticism: Liberal Education As If Truth Mattered (Paperback)
Christopher Derrick's paean to the curriculum at Thomas Aquinas College is too uncritical of that curriculum, which promotes one particular variety of "Great Books" program. The program has its strengths, but it also has its weaknesses."Great Books" programs are often touted as "conversations with history's greatest minds". But there is a danger of narrowness in a Great Books program that is long on discussing abstract words and short on investigating and evaluating real phenomena firsthand. I believe John Ray, who is frequently called "the father of natural history in Britain", said it best when he wrote the following, in _The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation_ (1691): "Let it not suffice to be book-learned, to read what others have written and to take upon trust more falsehood than truth, but let us ourselves examine things as we have opportunity, and converse with Nature as well as with books." It is not enough simply to read and discuss Aristotle. To achieve a truly first-class liberal education, one must also emulate him, and recognize that he was one of the ancient world's most gifted, dedicated, and habitual observers of physical, social and biological phenomena. As he wrote, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle's habit of independent, personal observation is at least as important a part of his great legacy to the Western world as is his development of formal logic, and its development in the student deserves at least as much attention in a curriculum devoted to the student's liberal education. A true liberal education will not neglect the habit of observing God's works directly for oneself. The possessor of a true liberal education will be able to develop new insights from his own personal experience, and to describe for others what he has seen and experienced as clearly and vividly as the 19th-century Scottish geologist Hugh Miller did in the following passage from his mid-century book _My Schools and Schoolmasters_: "The Hill of Cromarty is a huge primary mass, upheaved of old from the abyss, and composed chiefly of granitic gneiss and a red splintery hornstone. It contains also numerous veins and beds of hornblend rock, of which the quartz is white as milk, and the feldspar red as blood." Truth does matter. Grounding the pursuit of truth in personal experience and personal investigation matters even more. This book needed to make that point, and didn't.
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