To clarify what the problems are, first of all we need to reflect briefly on the nature of university education. What is a university, and what kind of education does it provide?
A brief history of university education
Modern Western universities have their beginnings in the 12th century with the foundation of universities such as Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, and the oldest still-functioning university, Bologna. From these ancient beginnings, modern universities developed and in the nineteenth century the number of universities expanded considerably. The German model of university education with its emphasis on higher degrees (doctorates) has been influential particularly in America, and now universities focus on research as much as teaching.
What is university education?
What makes a university education different from that of a polytech or secondary school? In some respects the distinctions are becoming blurred, especially with the trend for some secondary students to take university courses, or the proposals to allow some basic university courses to be taught in secondary schools, and with the polytechs now offering degrees in various specialties.
If we put aside for the moment some of these issues, we can say that university education differs from polytech education in that it focuses on theoretical analysis and concept-forming, rather than technical skills or development of techniques. While even this distinction is losing some of its validity as both universities and polytechs change their programmes. But the important point remains, even though it may be obscured by these changes: university education focuses on theory and concept-forming.
What then do we mean by theory? For some, the "theoretical" is simply the opposite (and a poor cousin) of the "practical." But this distinction between the "theoretical" and the "practical" is in itself a "theoretical" distinction, based not on experience or everyday life, but on a particular philosophical tradition: that of Kantianism. The true opposite of the "theoretical" is not the "practical," but the "non-theoretical," and the true opposite of the "practical" is not the "theoretical" but the "impractical." Thus instead of an opposition between the "theoretical" and the "practical," we have a contrast between that which focuses on explanation of why things are the way they are, in other words, a "theory," and a way of talking and thinking about things which does not focus on explanation, but on description, that is, a "non-theoretical" concern. Similarly, the contrast of "practical" with "impractical" is not between doing and thinking, but between what it is possible or advisable to do, and what it is not possible or advisable to do.
Opposites? | ||
False | Theoretical | Practical |
True | Practical | Impractical |
True | Theoretical | Non-theoretical |
We need to abandon the opposition we make between the "theoretical" and the "practical," as if this were to establish a hierarchy, with the theoretical higher and more important than the practical, and thus giving greater status to those engaged in that activity. Some New Zealanders have little time for university education, and see the practical training given in polytechs of more importance and use to the community. But this is simply to accept the same distinction between theoretical and practical, while simply turning them on their heads.
So we can see that a university education is not better or more important than a polytech education (even though universities would like in their deepest core of being to maintain this), but has a different focus and task to that of the universities, neither of which is superior to the other. This is one example, and an important one, of how a Christian perspective brings a distinctive and truer account of the way things are. The Kantian distinction between "theoretical" and "practical" is derived not from a Christian way of seeing the world, but from humanism.
So then, since a university education is based on theoretical understanding, what does this mean for the Christian student?
Firstly, what do we mean by "theory"? A "theory" is, as we have indicated, an approach to the world which seeks to explain why things are the way they are. A theory does not in fact tell us the way things are, as if we had direct access to what makes the world tick. It is only a human explanation, in terms we can understand, of why we believe things are the way they are.Note There is a tradition of thinking which claims to have direct access to what makes the world tick: the rationalism of Plato, which was continued in mediaeval scholasticism and early Enlightenment humanism. But this too is not the way things are, it is itself a theory and therefore open to question and debate.
What use then is a theory? A good theory is simply the best explanation we have so far developed which explains to us what makes the world tick. It will be comprehensive, in that it covers all known cases of a particular phenomenon, and can explain variations and deviations, as well as ordinary everyday examples of the phenomena it deals with. It will be coherent, plausible, and illuminating, leading on to further discoveries and greater understanding of the world around us.
The question then is, where do theories come from? Theories are developed to explain a set of phenomena for which there is at present no good explanation which is sufficient to cover all the examples of that phenomena in a way which is adequate and convincing. Sometimes we have to make do with inadequate theories simply because we do not have a better one as yet. That is the nature of research: seeking new and better explanations for things we do not understand adequately, or sometimes not at all!
Theories arise not from thin air, but from the convictions people have about the way the world is. These convictions are more basic than our theories about things; they concern not the specific phenomena we encounter in life, but life itself. These convictions can be called our "worldview." A worldview is simply a "comprehensive framework of one’s basic beliefs about things and their relationships." Thus we all have an intuitive, often unspoken view of the world, which is what we believe the world is like, what human life is for, what it means to be human, and where the human race is heading. Our worldview can be drawn out in the answers to four basic questions:
What is a worldview and why would I want one? - a brief summary of a Christian worldview.
The Whole Gospel for the Whole of Life
- a more in-depth study of the nature of worldviews and the contours of a distinctively Christian worldview.
This is not to argue for instrumentalism, which denies we can truly know the nature of the world, and asserts that our theories are only "instruments" we use to accomplish our purposes. It is simply to deny that we have access to the deepest, inner nature of things by means of rational inquiry. Only God knows how the world works; we can only ever have human explanations which for all their limitations may still be true!
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