文科 & 科学

文科

的 liberal arts are often said to be essential to the cultivation of critical judgment and independence of mind. 的y are widely considered to be indispensable in a “well-rounded” education. 但它们到底是什么呢? 是人文学科吗?? 经典?

今天, the term “liberal arts” has come to signify something general, such as “humane studies” or “general education.” But in the educational tradition of the West, the liberal arts are seven introductory disciplines which prepare the student for the more profound subjects, those that constitute the heart of a liberal education. 他们是 三学科 和 四门学科 — “the three ways” and “the four ways” — by which the mind acquires the qualities needed to pursue well the highest matters.

三学科: 语法•逻辑•修辞
四门学科: Geometry • Arithmetic • Astronomy • 音乐

的 liberal arts are not the only or even the most important part of liberal education, 但它们是它的基础. Only thinking which is disciplined, vigorous, and animated by wonder produces knowledge and wisdom.

的 liberal arts are, therefore, first in the order of learning at 托马斯·阿奎那 College. 的 课程 begins with the study of logic and grammar; astronomy and music are year-long tutorials. 日常阅读练习, 翻译, 数学证明, and argument helps students form habits of critical thought, 分析, and discourse which prepares them to engage in higher studies and will stay with them throughout their lives.

科学

Although the term “science” is often thought to apply narrowly to the natural sciences, 它适用于, 从更广泛的意义上讲, to any systematically arranged branch of knowledge. 的 托马斯·阿奎那 College 课程 therefore rightly regards philosophy 和ology as sciences — indeed, 最伟大的科学, with theology as the queen — because they systematically arrange the highest sorts of knowledge, those of wisdom and of God Himself.

Philosophy is divided broadly into speculative and practical or moral philosophy. Speculative philosophy is interested in nature and its causes. 道德哲学, 另一方面, is concerned with right reason as it applies to our active life, 这是, as it regulates the life of the passions and appetites which move us. With the liberal arts as their tools and with Aristotle — “的 Philosopher,” as St. 托马斯把他称为他们的向导, students at 托马斯·阿奎那 College study philosophy in all four years of the program.

的 highest philosophy is the study of being itself and of the Supreme Being; in this science reason explores, 除此之外, what can be known naturally about God. 作为圣. 托马斯观察, “almost all of philosophy is directed toward the knowledge of God, 这就是为什么形而上学, 是BG电子神圣事物的, is the last part of philosophy to be learned.这种“自然神学”导致, 反过来, 对神学的研究, which proceeds in a rational way from revealed principles and illuminates the mind about the truths of 信仰. 因此, the entire 课程 at 托马斯·阿奎那 College is ordered to theology, and in a special way to the works of the Church’s “Universal Doctor," St. 托马斯·阿奎那. 同样的，所有的St. 托马斯。’ theology aims ultimately at the highest object of contemplation, 三位一体, the study of which is among the last to be taken up by students at the College.