UnderAgeThinker

Many of you know that I have an unusual interest in education and spend a great deal of time on the subject.  For a long time I have struggled with defining education.  What is it that an education would not be an education without?  In modern usage the word has so many meanings as to almost render it meaningless.  For example, we talk of high school education, college education, home education, correctional education, classical education, dog obedience education, liberal education, Christian education, Catholic education, progressive education.  When a man is learning a trade like IT or bricklaying we say they are getting an education.  We talk of the education of the Founding Fathers and of Aristotle educating Alexander The Great.  Often times tribal leaders in the remotest parts of the world who have never seen a book in their lives are said to be educated in their ways.  Some would insist that no education is complete without Kant, Rousseau, and a healthy does of dead languages; others insist the best education comes from life experience. 

So I asked myself what I could not imagine an education without?  Algebra, Greek, Music, Reading, Bible, Science, History, Cultural Studies?  I don’t think any of them are required for an education.  They are enhancers, all merely branches of a greater vine.  The only thing I can find to be the vine, the only uniting thread that runs through all of them is Truth. 

The essence of education must necessarily be to instill in the student a jealous love of truth and, that not for any utility it may bring but rather because it is truth.

In this sense I would consider an IT guy or a bricklayer to be skilled tradesmen but not necessarily educated.  MDs, JDs, and PHDs should not necessarily be considered educated either and it would certainly be a big mistake to assume that all college grads are educated.  However, because all these people are said to be educated in our culture I propose a new term, philalathia (say it with me, fil-u-lay-the-u) which means lover of truth in Greek.  Philosopher by way of comparison means  lover of wisdom.  Being a philalathia is a prerequisite for being a philosopher.  The term philalathia may exist in Greek already and I suspect it (or something close to it) does, but I think we should adopt it to mean educated in the most literal sense.