JOHN HENRY NEWMAN ON EDUCATION by M. Jane Rupert A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of English University of Toronto OCopyright by M. Jane Rupert 1998 National Library Bibliottiéque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliogmphic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OttawaON K1AûN4 OttawaON K1A ON4 canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pemettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, Ioan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distriiuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de micmfiche/nIm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. John Henry Newman on Education was submitted by M. Jane Rupert to the Depart- ment of English at the University of Tomnto for the degree of Doetor of Philosophy in 1998. In The Ida of a University, Newman's gentleman followed the humanist tradition of Aristotle's man of general culture who understands issues from a howledge of the principles involved and approaches areas of tnith only through the particular methods which make them propedy accessible. Parallels between the Nicornachean Ethics and The Ide. of a University establish this common ground. Newman's own example illustrates the way a howledge of fun- damental principles and methods resoives arnbiguities and 1inks theones to their consequences: for example, his distinction between science and moral and religious tmth in "The Tamworth Reading Roornw; his differentiation between liberal and usehl education in The Idea of a University; his description in the Grammar of Assent of the orgmon through which we know indemonstrable mith; his separation of religious formation from the cultivation of the intellect because religious formation pertains to conscience and is mediateci through such channels as sacrament., preaching, and the mode1 of others. A cornparison of Newman and Bacon, two arbitea of method, confim the importance to bot. of applying methods only to those areas of truth which they serve to illuminate: physi- cal science, social mattea, and God. However, in The Advancement of Leamin6 in order to redirect leaming towards useful kuowledge and material well-being, Bacon dismisses specula- tive tnith, the traditional field of humanist learning and the centrepiece of liberal education. This reorientation of learning influenced subsequent educational thwries which increasingly recognized only the method of observation and experiment in al1 areas of learning including As a first principle in education, Newman assumes an objective, intelligibly unified world. The similarity between Newman's point of departue and traditional humanist education is evident in the commonalities between Quintitian's On the Early Education of the Citizen- orator and Newman's views on education particularly as describecl in The Catholic University Gazette. Unlike Baconian theones of education, liberal education for the man of general culture recognizes the distinction between the rhetorical mode of tùought required by letters and meth- odical or philosophical reasoning from principles. Humanist training coupled with moral and religious formation develop the Christian hiimanist gentleman. iii 1 wish to acknowledge the generosity of the Metroplitan Separate School Board and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association for a study leave granted to me in 1993-4. 1 am gratefui for the guidance provided by my advisers: for the initial encouragement provided by the late John Robson, for Peter Morgan's generosity with his time. for the sound, practical advice provided by Heather Murray, and for the fine sense of language provided by Harvey Kerpneck who saw this project through to the end. 1 am also indebted to Chris Rupert, s.j. for his unflagging assistance with computer difficuIties. 1 thank my WIyand my fiïends for their sustained encouragement during this project and their shared delight in its completion. Table of Contents Chapter 1 The Humanist Tradition: Newman's Gentleman as a Man of General Culture ... 17 Chapter 2 Newman and Bacon: Arbiters of Method ..................... ..... ................... 35 Chapter 3 Newman's Pedagogy ................... .. ................................................ 80 Chapter 4 Religious Formation ..................................................................... 142 Conchsion .................................................................................................... 171 Bibliography ............................ ... ............................................................ 179 Introduction The clarity of thought and ficulty for malriog discnminathg judgments which John Henry Newman believed to result fiom a liberal education was to be achieved not oniy through a knowledge of first principles of branches of knowledge but also through familiarity with the methods associated with broad areas of tnith. The intellect cultivateci through a knowledge of p~ciplesand methods Ied to what Aristotle calIs a man of culture and what Newman calls a man of philosophic habit or a gentleman. Cuiture for both Aristotle and Newman refers to a mind trained in first p~ciplesand cognizant of the importance of approaching any area of knowledge through the method suited to it. In order to examine the emphasis placed by Newman on methoch, 1 have located his thought in reference to two great arbiters of method to whom he frequently refers in The Mea of a University: Aristotle and Bacon, An'stotie, who fits Newman's description in the -Idea of a man who has mapped out the universe and knows "the relative disposition of things,"* des- cnbes the various methods by which we know: through the noetic fâcuity of immediate insight we know ultimate particulars and dtimate principles; through induction we proceed fkom par- ticulars to universals in a mersuited especially to the operations of physical nature; through 'habituation" we investigate the more complicated area of human affairs using dialectic and the topics discussed by Aristotie in the Organon. Bacon, in his Novum Organon, sought to rehe the method of induction. He ardently promoted this method for the study of physical nature and the acquisition of useful hiowledge. In The Advancernent of Leanzing, where he reviews the state of learning up to his time, he observes that there are only four different Lin& of proof applicable to specific subject matters: by the immediate consent of the mind and sense, by induction, through the syllogism, and through "congmity (which Aristotle calleth denwmtra- tion in orb or circle, and not a ~tiorihus"(135). Just as Bacon found the instrument of induction deficient in his time for the investiga- tion of nature, Newman found Aristotelian logic hadequate and sought to articulate how we reason in matters which cannot be demonstrated in the way deduction proves a proposition in geometry or induction discovers or confirms a principle in the physical sciences. The organon that Newman describes in the Grammar of Assent is suggestive of Aristotle's method described l John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, ed. Martin J. Svaglic (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame P, 1986) 85. Al1 future citations from the -Idea are fiom this edition. by Bacon as demonstration "by congruity" or "demoustration in orb or circIe."* Newman States that in particular indemonstrable matters, we arrive at personal certitude through probabilities, none of which is in itse1f conclusive but which converge from various quarters to persuade us of the tnith of a matter. Certitude may emerge, for example, "by objections overcome, by adverse theories neuîralized, by difficulties gradually clearhg up, by exceptions proving the de, by unlooked-for correlations found with received truths..." (254). To explain this mode of reasoning, he talces the example of a polygon drawn within a circle so that its points touch aie sides of the circle. If the number of the sides of the polygon is increased, the sides approach proportionately closer to the circle without ever adlybecoming the ~ircle.~in this mode of reasonhg, it is through the co~ectionof parts that an idea is hown. In theology, for example, the tmth of one doctrine is established when we see its location in relation to other doctrines; it is their connections, mutually and as a whole, which constitute their tr~th.~ This manner of reasoning is similar to that used by the Roman orator trained through a rhetorical education for forensic pleading and for the deliberative rhetonc used in public life, for example, to weigh political problems. As the snidy of empirical science is conducted through the inductive method of observation, the shidy of language and literature as transmiaed through the humiuiist tradition was conducted through a rhetorical pattern of thought similar to the orgmn described by Newman in the Gmmmac. The gentleman graduate of a liberal educa- tion was familiar not only with first principles