The Idea of a University

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1873

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-9

Part 2, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-6

Part 2, Chapters 7-10

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Index of Terms

Knowledge

The term “knowledge,” in Newman’s usage, holds several senses, but each sense is usually easily discerned by context. He sometimes uses “knowledge” as a simple synonym for “truth,” particularly when speaking of the unity of knowledge as representing all known truth. When he uses the term “knowledge” in reference to a person’s mind, he means much more than simply “information”; he uses the term to refer to information that is understood in the context of its relations with other knowledge. Such information is employed not just in one’s memory, but in one’s judgment and reasoning. Finally, Newman also uses “knowledge” as shorthand for his broader idea of holistic intellectual formation.

Liberal Education

Liberal education, to Newman, is an educational system that pursues a broad mastery of knowledge as its own end. It does not focus on gaining technical skills or limited fields of expertise merely for the sake of their practical utility. Rather, it aims for a formation of the entire intellect, a training of the mind to use knowledge rightly.

Theology

Theology, by Newman’s reckoning, is a science concerning ultimate causation. It is foundational to all other branches of knowledge, which study proximate or immediate causes. Theology, in its broadest sense related to Theism (a philosophical conviction of divinity’s existence), is grounded in the consensus of the monotheistic religions and of classical philosophy that there is an ultimate, divine cause of all things. In a more specific sense, Catholic theology is grounded in the received texts of the biblical canon and the traditions of the Church. In Newman’s view, theology is an objective science that explores doctrines by a logical process of deductive reasoning.

Literature

Newman provides his most exact definition of literature in Chapter 2 of Part 2: namely, that any piece of writing can be called literature if it bears the personal thoughts of a writer who discerns and articulates the sentiments of their age and of the human condition in a way that most people cannot. Newman also uses “literature” to refer to the academic study of such written works. He believes that the study of literature, as the record of human thought, is the study of humanity itself.

Science

“Science” is used in a general sense in The Idea of a University, denoting a branch of learning (such as when Newman calls theology a science). More commonly, Newman uses the term to refer to empirical studies of physical realities (as opposed to literature, which studies humanity, and theology, which studies supernatural reality). In most instances, Newman applies the term to those physical sciences that proceed by an experimental methodology and thus employ inductive reasoning, in contrast to the deductive reasoning that theology employs.