5 Responses to Liberal education, Aristotle and Catharsis

1. Ben Macik says:

   July 5, 2013 at 5:21 pm

   It would seem that a good teacher and a good physician are not similar. For a physician addresses problems that are acquired such as a disease and are not naturally found I the body. A good teacher is directed to “purge” the passions which are naturally found in the body.

   Reply
2. Mark Langley says:

   July 6, 2013 at 8:04 pm

   Ben,

   Now remember that the word for physician or doctor in Latin comes from the word for ‘teacher’ (i.e. doctor, doctoris 3rd masculine) and this is because doceo docere docui doctus means “to teach.” So that is interesting.

   Do you remember that our Lord said “call no man teacher” in Matthew chapter 23 (I think verse 10)?

   One reason for this is because just a s a doctor is not properly able “to heal” so a teacher is not able “to teach.”

   Rather a doctor and a teacher simply cooperate with nature and try to aid and promote what nature wants already. So, for example, a doctor might stitch up some wound in order to speed or help nature to heal the wound.

   Same thing with a teacher- he tries his best to ask questions and promote certain answers to arise in the student’s mind so that the reason of the student is itself led to affirm and know certain things. The teacher is no more able to force learning in a student than a doctor is able to force health into a patient aside from cooperating with what nature itself wants to do.

   Reply
3. andrew says:

   July 9, 2013 at 6:54 pm

   i was at the book store this past weekend and chanced to pick up aristotles ethics. im trying to wrap my mind around it but its hard to understand, can you extrapolate some what on this book? any advice will be greatly appreciated thanks.

   Reply
4. Mark Langley says:

   July 14, 2013 at 3:37 pm

   Great bookstore purchase…a little tough but a book that you want to keep around and come back to again and again. Why don’t you go ahead and start by reading chapter 5 in Book 1. (Later in college you can read it with a good teacher chapter by chapter from the beginning)

   Reply
5. Raj R Singh says:

   July 14, 2013 at 10:29 pm

   Langley that is not extrapolating

   Reply