Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6675-7347
Date Available
12-21-2024
Year of Publication
2024
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
Philosophy
Advisor
Dr. David Bradshaw
Abstract
This dissertation develops an account of the nature of education from a Thomistic point of view. The thesis is that education is best understood as ‘human growth’—growth, because it is the natural development of potentialities inherent within the human person toward full actualization, and human, because it pertains in particular to those faculties of reason that are unique to human beings among all natural creatures, the intellect and will. The first three chapters provide an overview of Thomistic anthropology and virtue theory, from which I conclude that the final goal toward which all genuinely educational activity aims is the speculative virtue of wisdom. In Chapters 4 and 5 I then develop a four-part causal analysis of education. The material cause of education is the human being who is educated, especially the faculties of intellect and will. The final cause is, ultimately, perfect happiness, and proximately moral and intellectual virtue. The formal cause is ‘human growth.’ The efficient cause, on the level of human causality, is first of all the one learning, and secondarily educational agents such as teachers, parents, laws, and schools.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.511
Recommended Citation
Parkinson, Keith, "On the Principles and Ends of Education: A Thomistic Approach" (2024). Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy. 43.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/philosophy_etds/43
