By DONALD DeMARCO
“The Complete Thinker” is borrowed from the title of Dale Ahlquist’s 2012 book, the subtitle of which is The Marvelous Mind of G.K. Chesterton. “Thinking,” for Chesterton, “means connecting things.” Ahlquist regards G.K.’s thinking as “complete” in the sense that it deals with a wide variety of subjects and integrates them in a consistent pattern. It is as if Chesterton has conducted a symphony in which all the instruments are playing in perfect harmony.
Chesterton credits Catholicism for assisting him in the valuable exercise of thinking. In The Catholic Church and Conversion he stated: “To become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but to learn how to think.”
Catholic universities have always stressed the importance of logic which serves as a basis for clear and reliable thinking. There is no limit to where thought can carry us, but its starting point is not whatever one might think it to be. The fact that Einstein could connect the energy locked up in an atom with its mass times the square of the speed of light is a prodigious example of the ability of thought to discover new horizons. The Church loves thinking, properly directed, because it opens new vistas that display the glory of God’s creation.
And so, I find it disheartening when I learn that someone has decided to leave the Church on the erroneous belief that she discourages thinking.
Let us take but one example (and there are many). In a taped television interview, Steve Allen, a man who displayed his various gifts on television, in motion pictures, as an author, a composer, and pianist, confessed that he left the Catholic Church when he was 30 years of age because “it did all the thinking for you” and he wanted to think things out for himself.
His remark is really an insult to every Catholic who remains in the Church. Pascal, Copernicus, Dante, Newman, Mendel, Pasteur, Mauriac, Lemaitre, Lejeune, Maritain, and numerous others never felt intellectually stifled because of their membership in the Church.
Fr. Vincent McNabb, OP, makes a most pertinent remark in his invaluable little book, The Catholic Church and Philosophy when he writes as follows:
“The peculiar function of the Catholic Church in the story of our civilization has been to preserve the philosophic conquests of pagan antiquity and to expand them over an even greater range of discovery than the greatest of the ancients had commanded.”
One might stress the significance of the word discovery. There are worlds yet to be discovered through thinking. But it is not easy to be a complete thinker. Freud knew something about science but nothing about man’s spiritual nature. Marx knew about social structures but had no regard for the dignity of the individual. Rousseau believed in the General Will, but not in the particular thought.
Nietzsche was infatuated by the superman, but rejected God. Sartre extolled freedom, but his philosophy had little to say about responsibility. Comte praised abstract humanity, but had little regard for anyone who believed in a higher power.
Many of the thinkers whose thought shaped the modern world were not “complete thinkers.” Their thought remained incomplete, failing to be applicable to the many realms that make up reality.
We all need help no matter what endeavor or activity we pursue. An opera singer needs a mentor, an athlete needs a coach, a student need a teacher, a dancer needs an instructor, and a child needs a parent. To begin the challenging art of thinking by oneself, unaided by the wisdom of the ages, is bound to fail at some point.
Chesterton has very severe on this point. “Thinking in isolation and with pride,” he remarked, “ends in being an idiot.”
The one philosopher, more than any other, who placed his hope in solitary thinking is Rene Descartes. His famous phrase, “I think therefore I am,” did not inaugurate a new philosophy, but terminated it. It died the moment it was born because it could not make the connection between thought and reality. His thinking affirmed his own being but could not cross over and affirm anyone else’s.
His philosophy logically ended in solipsism, the strange view that only the thinker has real existence.
Alexis de Tocqueville made the comment, in his classic Democracy in America, that all Americans are Cartesians, even though none of them have read Descartes. Cartesianism is in the air and is highly infectious. The notion that I can produce my own philosophy from my own solitary starting point is pandemic.
Jacques Maritain has made reference to this problem. In The Dream of Descartes he states: “Every modern philosopher is a Cartesian in the sense that he looks upon himself as starting off in the absolute, and as having the mission of bringing men a new conception of the world.”
To be a realistic thinker, one must be aware of the traps. The Church helps us to identify the traps and keep us on the right course. The Church is Magister.
Returning to Steve Allen, that wonderfully charming host of the first Tonight Show: After he left the Church, he identified himself as a “humanist.” And for his humanistic efforts he received many awards from various humanist societies.
The essential problem with “humanism,” however, despite its universal sounding name, is that it does not include all humans.
It excludes, for example, orthodox Catholics who have a broader and more inclusive view of human beings. Catholics believe that all human beings have infinite value and are equally loved by God. Here is an example of what Dale Ahlquist means by being a “complete thinker.” Thinking is not complete if it purports to include everyone, and yet excludes probably more than it includes.
E.F. Schumacher’s Guide for the Perplexed is a modern version of the one Moses Maimonides wrote back in the twelfth century by that same title. We are all, to a certain extent, perplexed. Therefore, we need help. The Church will not abandon us. We must be wary, however, not to abandon the Church.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress