Westmont Magazine A Future with a History
How the Liberal Arts Prepare Us to Speak to the Cultural Moment
by President Gayle D. 毕比
“我们做到了!这封来自欧内斯特·沙克尔顿给他远在英国的妻子的神秘信息告诉她,他在南极洲活了下来. It also sums up our entire academic year. 本期我们的杂志介绍了许多个人和大学倡议的惊人故事,这些故事在我们的全球流行病中不顾可能性, including the most improbable run of our women’s basketball team, who won the National Championship. You’ll read stories of the unexpected generosity of our friends, some incredible and amazing accomplishments by our distinguished faculty, 继续努力扩大学院的影响范围,这与我们的使命是一致的. 它还包括韦斯特蒙大学历史上最原始的毕业典礼的图片和文章! 最后, 这个问题说明了我们作为一所大学和一个更广泛的ag娱乐官网在正义问题上努力取得进展的过程中正在进行的重要工作, reconciliation and diversity.
In the past 15 months, 我们一直忠于我们的指导使命,同时学习如何创新和适应各个方面的重要挑战. No corner of the college has been untouched. Social, cultural, political and economic realities that have rocked the country have challenged us. 南希·科恩, a Harvard historian and this year’s speaker for our virtual President’s Breakfast, 强调关注我们不断变化的环境的重要责任,以便在未知环境中出现困难时,我们能够以有意义和成功的方式进行创新.
Later this month, 我们将召开虚拟领导会议,与大卫·布鲁克斯共度美好的一天. In preparation, I’ve been reading his book “The Second Mountain,,它邀请我们超越简历美德和悼词美德的二分法,去拥抱那些来自于我们将永远存在的目标的意义和快乐.
这本书鼓励我们做出四项承诺,从根本上将我们塑造成能够发现并过上美好生活的人:职业, 婚姻, faith and community. 美好生活的问题最早出现在前基督教时代,当时希腊人和罗马人想知道:什么是美好生活? Who is a good person? How do I become the kind of person who can find and fulfill this longing for the good life?
Jesus and the Early Church gave the most original response, and the religious and cultural resources they crafted continue to this day. In the past 2,000年, Christians have identified and expanded important insights, 但我们生活的核心定义现实是锚定在基督的生活,这仍然是我们在威斯蒙特所做的一切的激活原则. 我们继续我们持久的承诺,文科是学习如何学习的最佳途径,这样我们就可以保持重要的参与与每一个新一代面临的挑战.
By anchoring our mission to the liberal arts, we connect with a 2,500-year history dating back to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. In the ancient world, the liberal arts provided a graduated curriculum that mirrored human development. Students began by mastering the verbal arts of grammar, logic and rhetoric. They then studied the mathematical arts of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. The ancient world considered the liberal arts as a means to something else, never as knowledge simply for the sake of knowledge. 他们在特定的学科上训练他们的头脑,以便将他们的智力训练用于解决和回答生活中的重大问题.
Beginning with Clement of Alexandria (150-215), Christians articulated the liberal arts according to a four-fold progression: first, acquiring language skills. Second, mastering math skills. 第三, considering the right nature of ethics, the proper role of politics, and how to subjugate our unruly passions. 最后, after training the mind and guiding the passions, turning to a proper study of God.
In the classical scheme of the liberal arts, 三学科的, or the verbal arts, concerns the ordering of experience and the means of expressing our knowledge of human experience. In 三学科的, 语法训练我们的思想,磨砺我们的精神,这样我们就可以辨别和表达我们对人性的知识. Subsequently, logic establishes a regular and coherent frame for thinking, while rhetoric presents models and methods of expression and ultimately of persuasion. The Quadrivium, built on 三学科的, includes the mathematical arts. Arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music complete the development of the human mind.
早些时候, Aristotle emphasized that we shouldn’t look for the same measure of precision in all things, but for the level appropriate to each discipline. In this manner, the liberal arts illustrate how we learn the measure of truth appropriate to each category. Later, in the 11th and early 12th century, Hugh of St. 维克多通过展示个人如何通过将文科的崇高观点与生产劳动相结合来实现救赎,从而扩大了这种理解.
In the Didascalican, 休认为,地球上生命的技术进步源于我们对堕落的部分恢复. 为休, 科技和商业通过改善我们的尘世生活,使我们更接近我们在天堂的原始状态,从而帮助我们恢复与上帝和创造的正确关系. 以这种方式, 休扩展了原始的希腊和早期教会的文科概念,超越了柏拉图和奥古斯丁的哲学艺术和西塞罗的实用艺术,增加了第三个组成部分:生产艺术. These arts mirror God’s creative activity and show the industrious intelligence of humans. 进一步, 他们帮助我们走向上帝,因为他们需要训练和纪律,集中我们的思想和控制我们的激情. 因此, the productive arts teach us to love God, 约束自己,掌握特定的技能,这样我们就可以为上帝对我们世界的旨意做出创造性的贡献.
From the earliest days of its formation, 基督教文科传统为学生掌握人类学习以及探索的最高形式:上帝的研究做好了准备. 在早期, 亚历山大城的克莱门特(Clement of Alexandria)进一步强调,在人类知识的任何领域接受正确思考的训练,都会导致正确思考上帝的训练. 这种教育方法一直认为,教育的卓越愿景是为每一个上帝的追随者准备必要的理解和资源,以做出比我们更长寿的最终贡献.
In the long and storied history of our faith and our philosophy of education, St. Augustine set forth in his concluding work, “The City of God,“人类历史的重要区别在于,人们要么以自爱为导向,要么以对上帝的爱为导向,要么是自我意志,要么是将自己的意志与上帝的意志结合起来.
This insight continues to rivet our attention today. As our society careens through the vicissitudes of our cultural moment, Robert Putnam’s work, “上升,确定了塑造我们现代心态的六个基本因素,这些因素记录了从共同理想到文化自恋的集体侵蚀:经济不平等, political polarization, social isolation, cultural narcissism, race and gender. In each case, 他总结了125年的数据,展示了u型曲线,显示了逐渐上升到更大的相互依赖和合作,然后急剧下降到更大的独立和利己主义. He has labelled it an “I-We-I curve.”
作为一所大学,我们工作的核心是这样一种信念,即我们的存在不仅是为了与文化时刻对话,也是为了让学生为领导和服务的生活做好准备,这些生活将以变革的方式影响和改变世界,并将持续几代人. As we prepare for the year that lies ahead, 我们这样做是为了看到在我们面前展现的更广阔的视野,同时始终牢记上帝呼召我们做的重要工作.
The 毕比 family celebrates the graduation of their third Westmont alum. Left to right: Elizabeth ’17, Anna ’15, and Rick ’21.