One of the great blessings given to the world through the ages has been education. One thinks of the many Benedictine schools beginning in the so-called Dark Ages, the universities, the copying of classical texts, and so on.
One of the reasons why real Catholics have valued education has to do with the formation of the will. Without being over-simplistic, I want to parse out a few ideas from Fr. Ripperger's book from his long section on the will. One of the reasons in our day and age we see people floundering with either the idea of free will, or using the will is that they have not had formation in thinking, in the intellect, which informs the will.
Here is a snippet and then a comment:
The "possible intellect is the only immaterial knowing power in the soul, it is that which moves the will, i. e. the will is moved by the apprehension of reason or the possible intellect. Since the will is moved by the intellect, the good as grasped by the intellect, i.e. the understood good, moves the will. Since the will is moved by a universal power, i.e. the possible intellect grasps universals, the object it presents to the will is the end or good in general."
The greatest problem youth in our Western culture experiences is that of the lack of knowledge to use when making decisions. How many times have I heard parents say that, for example, they will let their children decide on what religion these children want when they are old enough to decide.
This approach and another approach, which is not to give any rational training to the intellect, allow the will to be weakened because the very power which could inform the will is missing.
Many discussions I have had in the past with young people revolve around a denial of free will. The decadence of the education systems in the West, with the downgrading of true liberal education, which taught youth how to think, has led to the lack of discipline of the passions, which can no longer be ruled by the will, which is missing the intellectual necessaries to choose between good and evil.
"If it feels good, it is right", is, of course the relativist's claim.
I honestly believe that the only people who are training the will at this time in the West are parents who home school in the Catholic tradition, or those teachers who are teaching in classical education, schools such as NAPCIS schools.
The training of the intellect forms the soul, and creates sanity, that is, a mind which can apprehend reality, the reality of sin and virtue.
I have picked out this bit for today as so many people blame circumstances, environment, nurture and nature for weak wills, when the main cause is rather simple--the loss of liberal education, which teaches humans how to think.
One may also comment on the idea of "universals", but that is another post.
to be continued...
