The Idea of a University

In his fifth discourse, Newman shifts his focus, taking into account not only the relation of various academic disciplines to one another, but also their effect upon their students. He contends that students at a university are not simply there to learn a single set of skills in one branch of knowledge, but to gain a view of the broad outlines of all knowledge and of the way that various disciplines bear upon each other. The goal is not just to produce workers who will be useful to society, but to train the mind in what Newman calls a philosophical habit: “A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom” (76). Knowledge is its own end, not for the practical utility it might impart, but simply because it is worth knowing, and further, because of its shaping influence upon the habits of the mind.

Newman addresses the value of what is called a “liberal education,” in which the classical liberal arts are defined as those forms of knowledge that are worth pursuing as ends in themselves, regardless of whatever practical utility they may confer.