Bea

Perhaps we may illustrate this process of synthesis by the most
celebrated historic instance of scientific discovery in conflict with
religious belief, the trial of Galileo for insisting that the earth
revolved about the sun instead of the sun about the earth, The student
might be shown that the Church's conception of the earth as the fixed,
immovable center of the universe was formerly the best scientific opin=
ion available and not merely a dictum borrowed from scriptural writings.
Upon this conception the Church erected a vast system of symbolic teach-
ings, with each planet having its particular significance and the entire
universe whirling around the earth every twenty-four hours, moved by the
blessed angels, whom God had created for this especial purpose, Small
wonder that many sincere churchmen felt Galileo's theory to be dangerous
for the Church, Yet its final acceptance had none of the expected dire
consequencess liuch of religion's symbolic superstructure lost its mean=
ing, but the deeper idea of an orderly universe manifesting a central
controlling intellect had as much validity as before. And this corres~
ponds with the fact that the seeming opposition between the earlier
theory of Ptolemy and the later theory of Copernicus and Galileo was not
so complete as it appeared. Behind the disagreement as to which heavenly
body revolved around the other was a more fundamental perception that the
sun and earth had a definite pattern of motion with relation to each other,
that this pattern could be accurately determined and used to predict eclips-
6s and similar phenomena, The second theory was a modification rather than
a reversal of the first; the first was not so much false as only partially
true. Similarly, almost every belief, scientific or otherwise, which has
been widely held by the human race, has an element of truth in it and is
the foundation stone of later knowledge. Hence the vast importance of a
historical perspective in every field of study, for we can understand the
present only by knowing the past,

By such illustrations as this, and by other means, the teacher can
help the students in the difficult problem of synthesizing their past and
present ideas. Needless to say, he should never show contempt for their
cherished beliefs, nor should he encourage such a contempt in them. An
irritating result of our present emphasis on “independent thinking" is
the self-assurance with which so many callow fledglings pass their igno+
rant verdicts on the accumulated wisdom of the ages, A respect for the
opinions of other men, living or dead, does not preclude a refutation of
their errors and is more conducive to genuine wisdom than an attitude of
assumed superiority,

III

We shall agree, I think, that the attainment of an integrated view
of life~=what we may call a synthesis»~should be a primary aim of the lib-
eral arts college, and that academic studies, however excellently taught,
are not complete unless the student gains some pereeption of their import-
ance in the whole field of knowledge and in his own life. It is therefore
weil to consider briefly the several divisions of the eyrriculum from this
point of view.