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The True, the Good, and the Beautiful: The True
One of the cherished concepts in classical education is the idea that there are real things that exist outside of ourselves that we must know in order to thrive.
We can talk at length about many things that fall into this category, but we summarize them with this exhortation to our students: I will seek the true, do the good, and love the beautiful. For us, these expressions are rich in meaning and history. They are at the core of our understanding of what it means to be human. Knowing that there are absolute true things, singular good things, and objectively beautiful things grounds us in a reality that is never subjective.
During the next few weeks, we will spend a little time in this newsletter discussing each of the three.
An Instructional Approach to Seeking Truth
Throughout history, we have contemplated how we know things and whether what we think we know is reliable. Generally, we use at least three capacities to learn: observation, reason, and intuition.
Equipped with these tools (observation, reason, and intuition), we can now ask ourselves if certain things about the world are true. A simple example can be taken from kindergarten instruction. There we’ll discuss trees with the students. First we define a tree. Then we look to see if we can find an object that fits the definition. Then we reason out whether there is more than one tree and determine if there are different kinds of trees. From there, we apply our intuition to direct our knowledge and experience of trees towards predicting the behavior of trees (such as whether we expect particular trees to produce food, wood, shade, beauty, or threats). Having done all three things, the children can say, “yes, it’s true there are trees. I know what they are, and I know what their purpose is.”
This is a basic exercise of seeking truth. We can do the same with human nature. From observation, we can see that societies thrive when humans behave in certain ways. From reason, we can cluster the characteristics into beneficial and detrimental groups. From intuition, we can see a behavior in ourselves and others and determine if it will lead to thriving or failure. Then through practice, we can prove that these characteristics (virtues) are real and trustworthy.
I have tried to demonstrate how we pursue truth. I have not attempted to address the source of truth. That is a much longer conversation. Plato’s discussion of forms and his analogy of the sun in The Republic is one place to start. His analogy is found in Book 6 if you are interested in further reading.
Mike Terry
Natl. Dir. of Classical Education
Founders Classical Academies
Learn more:
The Republic You can purchase here
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