| |
If you are interested in raising your child with an understanding of the world that is solid and faith-based, and yet realistic, then Philosophy for Highschoolers is the text for you. It represents the heart and center of the Thomistic worldview. St. Thomas Aquinas married the classical, and later christian worldview of reality as eternal, hierarchical, and given from above; and the modern (but originally Aristotelian) understanding of science as investigative, and revelatory in its own right. As the first in a two-volume series (the sequel being Theology for Highschoolers), the text lays an excellent foundation for later studies in Theology.
Modern science gives us new technologies of investigation, mathematical precision in evaluating and describing phenomena, and a standard systematization which is solid and dependable. In short, modern science is quantitative. Classical learning gives us a contemplation and meditative appreciation of the world, as we discover it, with due respect for its uniqueness, differences, subtleties, and indirect relationships. In short, classical learning is qualitative. The problem with modern science is that it has no ability to evaluate qualitative differences; and the problem with classical learning was that—except for scholasticism—it never even tried to be systematic and quantitative.
Philosophy for Highschoolers is unique in that it is first and foremost a qualitative philosophical system (considering traditional concepts such as essences, virtues, will, etc.), but it does it in a quantitative way. Through methods of diagramming exemplified by modern science, students learn to relate in a dynamic and solid way to these difficult and ethereal concepts. Philosophy for Highschoolers then constructs a contemplete, integrated system or worldview of man, and the creation to which he belongs.
|
