By Steve Vivona
“As advocates of liberal education our job is to encourage
reason, to facilitate it, to promote it. Knowledge is the medium in
which all else exists. You can’t say anything clearly unless you
have something to say.” That was one of the messages of Dr. John
Churchill, National Secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society,
during his April 21 lecture entitled, “Does it Matter What You
Study? What Phi Beta Kappa has Learned.” Dr. Churchill, who has
published and spoken widely on liberal arts education and the value
of core curricula, was invited to speak at St. John’s by the Office
of the Provost.
“The deluge of information today seems to have actually made the
job of having well-reasoned opinions harder to accomplish.” Dr.
Churchill observed, “Liberal Arts and Sciences isn’t just logic and
analysis, though a little of that helps, and it isn’t just about
learning facts, though a lot of facts help. Facts are
indispensable. It’s also about engaging with the facts, seeing the
patterns of relevance into which they fall.”
The business of Liberal Arts, Dr. Churchill noted, is to help
people see the world in new ways and acquire the skills of
deliberation. There has been a decline in baccalaureate degrees
over the last 30 years which he said is cause for concern. “The
less we know of history, economics, philosophy, literature, etc.
the poorer we are as citizens.” He added that studies have found
that the loss of these disciplines adds to the loss of deliberative
abilities.
“Our vulnerability in such a situation is frightening. This
vulnerability results from the loss of critical thinking, which
results from the loss of an intellectual commons,” Dr. Churchill
stressed. “The importance of maintaining this commons in times of
crisis, even in times of war, has long been understood.” As an
example he pointed to how the Nazi war machine overtook the minds
of young Germans through the University system before World War
II.
“Freedom will not be preserved simply by reading Antigone nor
honored by The Iliad nor deliberation by Hamlet. But without them
or their equivalents in literature, art, music, history or
philosophy…these things, freedom, honor and the capacity to
deliberate will certainly be lost.”
Dr. Churchill observed that preserving these disciplines, while
always a struggle, is a necessity. “There is no alternative. To
struggle in a fog is one thing. To stride confidently through the
fog believing oneself in wind and air is a much worse thing.”