Classical Christian Education and Nuclear Warfare
It is impossible for the educator, even of small children, not to take notice that this week the Earth came as close to renewing nuclear warfare as it has at any time since the reciprocal development of competing thermonuclear weapons by the United States and the Soviet Union.
Closer even, than during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Had President Kennedy chosen to bomb the Cuban missile site, and perhaps attempted to sink a Soviet submarine or three, we might have found out whether that particular crisis was more or less severe than the one last week. He did not, and it is useless to speculate based on hypotheticals.
I have another reason for speaking out at this time—my personal obligation as a trained (Ph.D.) Experimental Nuclear Physicist, with some post-graduate work in that field, and also an interest in matters of Meteorology and Climate, informed by my reading of Sagan et al., The Cold and the Dark, on the theory and consequences for the Earth’s climate of a full-scale nuclear conflict, commonly called the ‘Nuclear Winter’. The science and possibility of this has not changed in the intervening years, any more than the understanding that using fossil fuels for the next 30 or 50 years would lead to Global Warming, which we did and it has.
So, what has the discussion of such weighty matters, important as they are, to do with Classical Christian Education (CCE)? I would answer, at least two very important observations, which are subject of this essay.
(1) That in Classical Education ‘Physics’ is a broader term than what we currently designate by it, and includes also Biology and Chemistry, so that there is no easy pass for physicists or chemists because they are not working on subjects that directly impact Life and the Environment, but are ‘merely theoretical’.
And (2), That even in CCE, the ‘Liberal (Classical) Education’ part is, and should be, purely secular, and non-controversial, when presented to children younger than ‘Rhetoric’ stage. That is, children of Grammar and Dialectic phase.
This contrasts greatly with the theory of our current Educational System, which is based on the Clausewitz Triangle, and places Education in the service of War and the State. That is, the two hands of the Government of the State (top of the triangle) are the Military (who are given Military Doctrine, or training), and the People, who likewise are indoctrinated with Total Education for Total War in the service of the Total State (of Prussia, later America).
This contrasts greatly with the principles of the Scottish Enlightenment, and the Liberal and Classical principles of the American Revolution, and its alternatives. Certainly it contrasts with a millennium or two of traditional Christian Education as well. The alternative form of militarist, universal, and mandatory education was first tried in Massachusetts, after dis-establishment of Puritanism in 1832. In short, in the period that in Europe corresponds to the time between the conclusion of the Congress of Vienna (1820) and the Crimean War at mid century. It was tried in a single state, at the time of the New England Transcendentalists, Emerson and Thoreau. Until the post-bellum period, very few states made it mandatory or even experimented with it. It is, thus, a project of ‘Liberal Democracy’ and not of a Constitutional Republic. Until quite recently, it was not a matter for the Federal government to concern itself with at all, though clearly the experience of the Wilson and FD Roosevelt administrations changed that as well.
To touch first briefly on the second point, then, that Classical Education, or Liberal Education, should be both purely Secular and also not have a lot of political propaganda mixed up with it to ‘indoctrinate’ the children: we start with the fact that there are *TEN* Liberal Arts, not *SEVEN* (according to, for example, St Augustine).
The first seven ‘arts’ are called ‘disciplines’—these are, famously, the Trivium (Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy) that comprise most of Classical Education in the secular sense through High School. They are ‘disciplines’ because they are taught to young children—Disciples, and are meant to have nothing that adults would dispute among themselves—and certainly politics and the objectives of warfare, rather than physical training for it, are both controversial and contentious. One cannot compete in any ludus before one is trained!
The principle of not teaching the controversial parts of the Liberal Arts, and of treating the Liberal arts differently from the Bible—Cassiodorus calls his book Divine and Secular (Humane) Letters—is built into the structure and meaning of the Classical Liberal Arts.
The last three Liberal Arts, bringing the total content of Liberal Education to TEN, are called the Three Philosophies, and comprised of Medicine, Law, and Divinity (the clergy, as in going to seminary). These differ from those taught to young children, because there are different schools of thought about them, and ‘adult discussion’ is required.
All of the Liberal Arts are both Sciences and Arts. That is, they have a theoretical part, and a practical part. Music, for example, is both the mathematical theory of the Quadrivium subject—that musicians talk about when they say Theory Class—and practice, practice, practice, which in turn is a one of the Useful Arts and a Fine Art. Likewise, there is a theory and practice to each of Medicine, Law, and Divinity. We speak of practicing Medicine or Law. We speak of the Practice of Religion as opposed to teaching Doctrine.
So, where does Physics fit in? In the Classical Liberal Arts, is the theory of Medicine. We all know what the practice of medicine is, and that it is subject to the Hippocratic Oath. This oath binds not just those who that are speculating ‘theoretical Biology’ and practice it, but those that speculate on or practice Chemistry, and those that speculate on or practice Physics.
First, Do No Harm.
Let’s let that sink in. Someone practicing Physics (or Chemistry, or the Biology of Men or Animals or Plants or Ecology…) should FIRST, do NO HARM.
That is what the Classical Liberal Arts say to us about Practicing Physicists and Nuclear Warfare. Whether this is binding on Engineers, Technicians, or Soldiers a controversial matter as to the exact rules and ethics. We don’t say to soldiers, ‘first, do no harm you know, chap’. Likeweise, we do not so enjoin Lawyers or the Clergy with this exact formula, who have professions with their own rules of conduct, with professional equivalents. But to Physicians and Scientists we do say this.
If you ever wondered what Classical Christian Education has to say on how a Nuclear Reactor *Physicist* has different obligations from a Nuclear Reactor Engineer or a Nuke Mech on a Navy sub of whatever rating, now you know.
