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On Self-Education

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As part of our program, members at the Lyceum Institute are encouraged to suggest rich topics for our weekly Philosophical Happy Hour.  One member writes:

What is the value of self-education?  By this I mean education that one engages in, (either through books or courses) without the aid of a teacher.  I think there is value in it, as I likewise engage in it for various different subjects.  Most people need to do so in fact for their jobs or other necessary engagements.  I guess my problem is that this has become the default mode of learning for most people (mostly from what I believe is the failure of the education system).  One form of teaching that is very valuable is mentorship which, in most disciplines, does not exist anymore.  I feel like this is a problem because without good mentors it seems as though the only way to become proficient in something is to acquire it from complete scratch without any prior experience.

What do we mean by “Self-Education”?

The term “self-education” seems to propose, in one sense, a kind of paradox: for the word “education”, understood by its etymological roots, signifies “leading out-from”.  If one has read Plato’s Republic, the famous allegory of the cave doubtless comes to mind: for the philosopher leads the prisoner out from the captivity of dim light and shadow into the true light of day and intellect.  But can we lead ourselves out from anything?  Do we not need to be led by someone or something other, if we are to be led at all?

Conversely, it has been suggested—for good reason—that all education is, at least in some sense, “self” education.  The teacher cannot produce knowledge or understanding or learning in the minds of students.  Socrates may drag you kicking and screaming from the cave, he may even try to prop open your eyes, but he cannot make you see the truth of things.  The most intense efforts at extrinsically-imposed and tyrannical indoctrination might produce conformity or adherence, but they do not result in understanding.

As such, whatever we mean by education, it comes somehow through the agency of the self.  But what is this agency?

Discovery and Guidance

Human beings, among all animals, prove unique in their cognitive abilities.  Other animals—for instance, dolphins, chimpanzees, even dogs, raccoons, horses, etc.—might exhibit a kind of curiosity in the unfamiliar.  But this curiosity remains nevertheless reactive rather than proactive.  We seek out the unknown and, in that seeking, demonstrate the limitlessness of our curiosity, of our desire to attain knowledge rather than merely familiarity.  We incline towards discovery.

But the world extends in both breadth and depth far beyond our ability to discover all its secrets by ourselves.  We gain knowledge much faster together than separately, and faster still by learning from those who carry their discoveries forward from one generation to the next: who establish traditions of knowledge.  In practical fields, this knowledge might be of little significance beyond job performance, and its duration might be fleeting: technical standards that are obsolesced in a few years, theories that are quickly outdated, research that proves false, methods that turn out ineffectual, and so on.  Tasks rising from circumstance or situation rely upon momentary solutions rather than essential truths.  In world of work, therefore, provided that one has access to the correct repositories of information, the solutions can be discovered.

But for difficulties that do not admit of momentary solutions: can we rely upon ourselves to discover the correct answers?  Do we need guidance—someone to not only help us out of the cave, but subsequently to understand the strange new brilliant things we are seeing?

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We will be discussing this topic today (18 October 2023) and you are invited! Join our mailing list to receive an email or click the link below to join the session live (5:45–7:15pm ET).

Philosophical Happy Hour

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News and Announcements

John Poinsot – Cursus Theologicus

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Cursus Theologicus

The work of John Poinsot, also known as Joannes a Sancto Thoma (though as John Deely noted, his name has often been given in many other variations, across English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin), has long been the victim of great neglect. His Cursus Philosophicus was critically-edited and published in the 1930s under the blessed endeavor of Beatus Reiser, O.S.B., and reprinted in 2008 by Olms Verlag. Currently, his Cursus Theologicus is undergoing a similar critical evaluation and re-publication.

Though the facsimile reprint volumes here are taken from the non-critical and therefore somewhat unreliable Latin text Vives edition of the 1880s, they are presented in full and affordably. The far superior critical Solesmes edition has thus far reached only the fifth volume (in 2015) and sits outside the price-range of many.

However, in the meantime and in an effort to promote the study and understanding of Poinsot, these ten volumes (the tenth being the index to the whole series) are presented as-is, in a reasonably durable, reasonably affordable set. All the volumes are entirely in Latin. Note that only the first four volumes were completed in Poinsot’s lifetime. The rest were compiled and edited by followers of his posthumously after his sudden death in 1644, drawing from notes he had left behind.

The total cost for all 15 printed volumes (10 tomes), before tax, is $261. They are also available here to download free in PDF. Please consider donating if you do! (If anyone tried downloading before, I had uploaded the wrong Zip file! Apologies! Corrected now.)

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Brief Table of Contents

  • Tomus Primus – Summary of the Sentences of Peter Lombard; introduction to and approbation of St. Thomas; Sacred Theology; God’s existence and nature.
  • Tomus Secundus – Attributes of God; the Work of the Six Days.
  • Tomus Tertius – I – The Ideas, Truth, Life, and Will of God.
  • Tomus Tertius – II – God’s Love, Justice, Mercy, Providence, etc.
  • Tomus Quartus – I – Mystery of the Sacred Trinity; Creation.
  • Tomus Quartus – II – Treatise on the Angels.
  • Tomus Quintus – I – Ultimate End of Humans; Human Acts.
  • Tomus Quintus – II – Human Acts; their Goodness and Evil.
  • Tomus Sextus – I – Good and Evil of Human Acts; Passions, Habits, Virtues.
  • Tomus Sextus – II – Effects of the Holy Spirit, Grace, Justification.
  • Tomus Septimus – I – Faith, Hope, Charity, Authority of the Pope; Homicide.
  • Tomus Septimus – II – Irregularity; Religion, Devotion, Prayer, Miscellaeny.
  • Tomus Octavus – The Incarnation.
  • Tomus Nonus – Sacraments in general; the Eucharist; Penance.
  • Tomus Decimus – Indices.

cursus theologicus – complete volumes

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS PRIMUS

In this first volume of his Cursus Theologicus, John Poinsot summarizes the four books of Peter Lombard’s Sentences, gives an introduction to the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, explains the connection and order of the whole Summa Theologiae, provides a treatise lauding and defending the authoritative teaching of St. Thomas, and exposits the first seven questions of the Prima Pars of the Summa Theologiae.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS SECUNDUS

In the second volume of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot continues his commentary on the treatise concerning the divine nature, from question eight through fourteen, before turning to the work of the six days of creation, in questions sixty-five through seventy-four, all of the Prima Pars in the Summa Theologiae.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS TERTIUS I

In the first of two parts in volume three of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot discusses the ideas of God, truth and falsity with respect to Him, and pursues the questions of God’s life and will.  Here he follows and exposits the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae Prima Pars.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS TERTIUS II

In the concluding part of volume three in his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot discusses many more topics concerning God: His love, justice and mercy, providence, potency, and beatitude. He also takes up here the questions of predestination—not only expositing St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae Prima Pars, but responding also to a pressing concern of his own age.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS QUARTUS I

In this, the first part of the fourth volume in his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot provides two treatises commenting upon the Prima Pars of the Summa Theologiae: first concerning the mystery of the sacred trinity, and second, concerning creation.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS QUARTUS II

In this, the second part of the fourth volume in his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot delivers a thorough treatise concerning the angels, commenting upon the corresponding part in the Prima Pars of the Summa Theologiae.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS QUINTUS I

This, the first of two volumes in the fifth tome of Poinsot’s Cursus Theologicus, covers the first nine questions in the Prima Secundae of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, comprising the treatise on the ultimate end for human beings, and the beginning of the treatise on human acts.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS QUINTUS II

The second of two volumes in the fifth tome of Poinsot’s Cursus Theologicus, this volume completes the treatise on human action and considers the goodness and evil of human acts, continuing to build our understanding of the Prima Secundae in Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS SEXTUS I

The first of two parts in volume six of his Cursus Theologicus, here Poinsot completes his discussion of the goodness and evil of human acts and takes up also the passions, habits, and virtues, expounding upon the insights of St. Thomas Aquinas in his Prima Secundae of the Summa Theologiae.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS SEXTUS II

In this, the second of two parts in volume six of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot continues examining and expositing the Prima Secundae of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, taking up the topics of gifts, blessings, and fruits of the Holy Spirit, before turning to grace and justification.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS SEPTIMUS I

Here, in the first of two parts in the seventh volume of his Cursus Theologicus, and acting as commentary upon the Secunda Secundae of Aquinas’ Summa Theologia, Poinsot treats of faith, hope, charity, the authority of the pope, and dedicates a question specifically to homicide.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS SEPTIMUS II

In the second of two parts in volume seven of the Cursus Theologicus, John Poinsot discusses canonical impediments to holy orders (irregularity), the nature of religion, devotion, prayer, and various other questions pertaining to the conduct of spiritual life, following prompts from the Secunda Secundae of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS OCTAVUS

In this eighth volume of his Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot takes up commentary on the Tertia Pars of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, discussing the many nuances which follow upon the Incarnation.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS NONUS

In this, the final substantive volume of the Cursus Theologicus, Poinsot completes his consideration of the Tertia Pars of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, with treatises concerning the sacraments in general, the sacrifice of the mass, the Eucharist, and of penance.

CURSUS THEOLOGICUS – TOMUS DECIMUS

This volume contains an invaluable set of indices to all ten tomes, including all citations of Sacred Scripture sorted by book, and a general, analytic index sorted alphabetically.

Sample Views

Video: https://twitter.com/LyceumInstitute/status/1672792840538054656/video/1

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News and Announcements/Philosophical Happy Hour

What does it mean to be “Rational”?

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Common sense. “Practical.” “She has a good head on her shoulders.” “You’re being irrational!” Sayings uttered with frequency—but are they said with understanding? What do we mean by “being rational”? We contrast reason with feeling or emotion. We contrast reason or the rational, also, with the “irrational”. Does this mean that feelings or emotions are irrational? Is the world divided into rational and irrational phenomena or experiences—objects that possess or lack a rational core or rational being?

Rationality and Control

Often, “rationality”, today, is situated in the context of critical and pragmatic control: something is rational, in other words, if subject to the conscious control of human volition. This conscious control, it seems, must be intersubjective—or capable of being successfully communicated—as well. Consider, for instance, the “preliminary specification” for the meaning of rationality provided by Jürgen Habermas:

An expression satisfies the precondition for rationality if and insofar as it embodies fallible knowledge and therewith has a relation to the objective world (that is, a relation to the facts) and is open to objective judgment. A judgment can be objective if it is undertaken on the basis of a transsubjective validity claim that has the same meaning for observers and nonparticipants as it has for the acting subject himself. Truth and efficiency are claims of this kind. Thus assertions and goal-directed actions are the more rational the better the claim (to propositional truth or to efficiency) that is connected with them can be defended against criticism. Correspondingly, we use the expression “rational” as a disposition predicate for persons from whom such expressions can be expected, especially in difficult situations.

Habermas 1981: The Theory of Communicative Action, vol.1, 9-10

To give some concrete examples of what Habermas means, let us consider both a claim to truth and to efficiency. If I say that 5+5=10, this claim has the same meaning for anyone who understands the terms (leaving aside the sophists who would deny such). What I signify in making the claim is the same as what you, the observer, recognize in it. Likewise if I say that 10 of one thing is more than 6 of the same. I can then claim that getting the same results from doing something six times as doing it ten times is more efficient, which will likewise be “transsubjectively observable”.

Reason and Rationality

But is that it? Charles Peirce writes that “…‘rational’ means essentially self-criticizing, self-controlling and self-controlled, and therefore open to incessant question.” He uses the term, as we all typically do (conscious of it or not), to designate an attribute of persons and their actions. Of reason, however, he writes: “The very being of the General, of Reason, consists in its governing individual events. So, then, the essence of Reason is such that its being never can have been completely perfected. It always must be in a state of incipiency, of growth.” Is there, then, a difference between “reason” and “the rational”? A connection? In what would that difference, that connection, consist?

As William Barret writes in his Irrational Man:

To be rational is not the same as to be reasonable. In my time I have heard the most hair-raising and crazy things from very rational men, advanced in a perfectly rational way; no insight or feelings had been used to check the reasoning at any point. Nowadays, we accept in our public and political life the most humanly unreasonable behavior, provided it wears a rational mask and speaks in officialese, which is the rhetoric of rationality itself. Witness the recent announcement that science had been able to perfect a “clean” hydrogen bomb—to be sure, not perfectly “clean” yet, but “95 per cent clean” or even “96 per cent clean.” Of course the quantitative measurement makes the matter sound so scientific and rational that people no longer bother to ask themselves the human meaning of the whole thing. No doubt, they tell themselves, there must be a perfectly rational chain of arguments which, starting from the premise that there must be hydrogen bombs, leads to the conclusion that there must be “clean” hydrogen bombs—otherwise war itself would become impossible!

Barret 1958: Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy, 270.

Here we see again the contrast: the rational opposed to the emotive. What then, does “the rational” mean? Join us this evening for a robust discussion at our Philosophical Happy Hour!

Philosophical Happy Hour

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News and Announcements/Philosophical Happy Hour

Connection of the Philosophical and the Pragmatic

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One could argue—and I have myself many a time—that never before in human history has there been greater need for the presence of philosophical habit and the realization of philosophical wisdom. We find ourselves engaged in constant communication. Therefore, we find ourselves also immersed ever more in ideas. A theoretical grasp of those ideas seems necessary to practically incorporating them into our lives. But the contrast of philosophical practice and pragmatic exercise seems an irresoluble tension. This irresoluble tension has resulted in two distinct groups of persons who either do not or cannot communicate.

Thus, there are those who have the ability to do things in the world—“technologists”, in the broad sense of the term, as those in possession of pragmatic techne—and those who have an understanding of the world—“philosophers”, those who are in possession of episteme or even in some relation to sophia. But those who can do seem not to understand, while those who understand seem incapable of doing.

We see this tension realized in the discussions around artificial intelligence, politics, raising children, and the ever-increasing moral and psychological listlessness, acedia, which seems to ensnare more and more persons by the day. How can we overcome this tension, bringing understanding to those who can do, and the ability to do to those who understand? Join us this evening for our Philosophical Happy Hour to discuss!

Philosophical Happy Hour

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Come join us for drinks (adult or otherwise) and a meaningful conversation. Open to the public! Held every Wednesday from 5:45–7:15pm ET.

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IO2S

IO2S Deely – Mind and Cognition at play in the Semiotics of Peirce

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On 12 February 2022 at 10am ET/3pm UTC (see times around the world here), Lucia Santaella will present on “Mind and Cognition at play in the Semiotics of Peirce”. Santaella is a researcher 1A of CNPq, graduated in Portuguese and English Literature. She is a Full Professor in the Post-Graduate Program in Communication and Semiotics and Director of the Post-Graduate Program in Technologies of Intelligence and Digital Design at PUC-SP – Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, with a PhD in Literary Theory received from PUC-SP, in 1973, plus a Habilitation Thesis (Livre-Docência, in Portuguese) in Communication Sciences at ECA-USP – School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo, achieved in 1993. She is the Director of the CIEP – International Center for Peircean Studies at PUC-SP. She is the Honorary President of the FELS – Latin American Federation of Semiotics, as well as the Brazilian correspondent of the Argentinian National Academy of Fine Arts, appointed in 2002. She was elected the President of the Charles S. Peirce Society, USA, for 2007. Santaella is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Peirce Edition Project in Indianapolis, USA, and holds many other responsibilities and honors.

Commentary will be provided by Gary Shank, Professor of Educational Research at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. He has been active in semiotics since 1979, when he attended his first Semiotic Society of America meeting at his alma mater, Indiana University.

Join the Zoom meeting to participate.

2022 International Open Seminar on Semiotics (IO2S) | Website

This collaborative international open scientific initiative and celebration is jointly organized by the Institute for Philosophical Studies of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra, the Lyceum Institute, the Deely Project, Saint Vincent College, the Iranian Society for Phenomenology at the Iranian Political Science Association, the International Association for Semiotics of Space and Time, the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Semiotic Society of America, the American Maritain Association, the International Association for Semiotic Studies, the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies and the Mansarda Acesa with the support of the FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the Government of Portugal under the UID/FIL/00010/2020 project.