Philosopher Royalty: the Modern Liberal Arts Student

In Interdisciplinarity, Moran draws the development of the disciplines largely back to Ancient Greece. Aristotle created a hierarchy of disciplines, in which productive subjects, such as engineering, and to my disappointment, poetry and fine arts found themselves on the bottom tier. What Aristotle calls the practical subjects, ethics and politics, are in the middle tier. Physics, math, and theology, the theoretical subjects, were what Aristotle held in the highest regard. Aristotle’s stark classification of these disciplines is softened by his belief that “parents should have their sons trained not because it is necessary, or because it is useful, but simply because it is liberal and something good in itself.” Moran mentions that Aristotle had reservations about dividing knowledge, so he named the philosopher as one who bound all of that together in the highest form. Even at this stage, it’s clear that Aristotle is in favor of an interdisciplinary education. This hearkens to the work of his teacher, Plato.

Because of their relationship of student and teacher, it’s not unrealistic to imagine Aristotle and Plato’s works and ideas in conversation. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates speaks of a just city, his utopia. He calls it Kallipolis. While Socrates’ ideals for rulers’ education clearly foster a response from Aristotle, he provides a plan to create more interdisciplinary students, or philosopher “kings” (I’ll refer to them as royalty or rulers). He, too, held philosophy in high regard, and believed that rulers should philosophize, as well as philosophers should rule. Socrates proposes the rulers’ education system as follows: the childhood and adolescence are dedicated to the study of music poetry, and physical education. The next phase dedicated to the study of math and logic, the abstract constructs. Thirdly, they were to study rhetoric. After a long ‘internship,’ these folks were primed to become just rulers of the city.

That’s all well and good, but what does that mean for us today? Richard Sigurdson’s article, “Why Study the Liberal Arts?” (check out the full article here) is posted in the Department of Languages and Literature, just down the hall from our classroom. Mr. Sigurdson calls a liberal arts education “broad and diverse.” Liberal arts students are not taught through the lens of one job, but through the innumerable possibilities of careers. Just like Socrates’ scholars would have, liberal arts students benefit from the learning and personal development brought from each field to become a pinnacle of interdisciplinary thought and resource- ideal leaders. In short, interdisciplinary education prepares you to rule the world.

 

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