Truth, Facts and Education

Late this morning I received a phone call from a long-time friend, an academic who teaches business-related subjects at a California university. He was mildly upset with me and took issue with what I wrote in yesterday's post. His point was that, contrary to what I believe, the educational establishment is still largely devoted to seeking the truth and not simply focused on the accumulation of useful facts. Here's the gist of what he said to me, pretty close to his actual words:

Of course, we want our students to learn the facts and apply the skills they need to be successful in their chosen professions. That's a major part of what we as educators do. But we also encourage them to seek the truth. One thing about the truth is that it works, and so knowing the truth will help them achieve that same success.

We argued our respective positions very pleasantly for ten minutes or so, but without much movement on either side. I'm committed to my view that our system of education -- particularly higher education -- has largely devolved into a high-cost system of professional or job training. He, on the other hand, is equally sure that his and other universities remain committed to the age-old principles of a liberal education.

I won't claim to be smarter than my friend because I'm not. He is a very intelligent man. But he is also a committed pragmatist, which is evident from his comment that seems to define the truth as that which "works." Indeed, most business people -- and for years I worked closely with all levels of business people from well over a hundred companies -- are pragmatists who seek that which works and tend to confuse this with seeking the truth. This way of thinking also leads many of them to become relativists. As one CEO once told me, "If you start moralizing about business decisions, you can become paralyzed."

But back to this morning's long-distance argument...My business professor friend might be the smarter one but, thanks to Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas and others, I think I had the better arguments, even if I didn't always apply them very well.

Finally, probably a bit frustrated by his immovability, I asked him, "When did you last teach about the search for truth in class?" That seemed to take him by surprise. He said he couldn't recall and that's when I knew I had won the argument. (Okay, maybe I'd won only in my own mind, but that was good enough for me.) The way I saw it, if he couldn't recall when he'd last taught about "truth" I suspect he never had, at least formally. (This will doubtless result in another phone call.)

My main point here is that ever since the enlightenment education has consciously moved away from the search for truth. From the start most of the great universities were formed around the study of theology, the pursuit of the truth about God and His relationship with man. This pursuit was foundational, since it was considered to be the basis of all other truth about man and his world. This is no longer the case. Today the study of theology, particularly Christian theology, is an academic backwater at most universities. Indeed, in many institutions the study of theology has been replaced by religious studies or comparative religion programs --  nice, soft titles that mesh well with the average university's sociology and anthropology departments. And if theology has been retained as a course of study, it's usually relegated to a school of divinity, well segregated from the "normal" student body.

It's no coincidence that this growing neglect of the study of theology was accompanied by a parallel devaluation of the very idea of truth. Once the existence of objective truth is placed in doubt, once the skeptics are in charge, the whole concept of a liberal education dedicated to a search for truth is called into question. Before long education becomes fragmented, focusing instead on learning the facts needed for specialized and practical studies. And from my perspective, this is where education is today, turning out well-trained but uneducated graduates.

Too bad.