Abstract
Connatural knowledge is knowledge readily acquired by beings possessing a certain nature. For instance, dogs have knowledge of a scent-world exceeding that of human beings, not because humans lack noses, but because dogs are by nature better suited to process olfaction. As various ethicists have argued, possession of the virtues involves a sort of connatural knowing. Here, connatural knowledge emerges as a knowledge by inclination which systematically tracks the specific moral interests we humans possess precisely because we are human. In this essay we explore the importance of connaturality for moral education.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anscombe, G.E.M. 2005. In Human life, action and ethics: Essays by G.E.M. Anscombe, ed. Mary Geach and Luke Gormally. Charlottesville: Imprint Academic.
Aquinas, Thomas. 1852–1873. Scriptum super quatuor libros sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi. Parma: Pietro Fiaccadori.
Aquinas, Thomas. 1953. Truth, vol. II. Trans. James V. McGlynn. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co.
Aquinas, Thomas. 1975. Summa Contra Gentiles. Trans. Anton C. Pegis et al. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Aquinas, Thomas. 1981. Summa Theologica, complete English edition in five volumes. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Allen: Christian Classics.
Aquinas, Thomas. 1993. Commentary on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Trans. C.I. Litzinger, foreword by R. McInerny. Notre Dame: Dumb Ox Books.
Aquinas, Thomas. 1999. Disputed questions on virtue: Quaestio Disputata de Virtutibus in Communi and Quaestio Disputata de Virtutibus Cardinalibus. Trans. Ralph McInerny. South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press.
Aristotle. 2002. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. and intro. by Christopher Rowe, intro. and commentary by Sarah Broadie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Au, Wayne. 2008. Unequal by design: High-stakes testing and the standardization of inequality. New York: Routledge.
Chua, Jude Soo Meng. 2009. Saving the teacher’s soul: Exorcising the terrors of performativity. London Review of Education 7(2): 159–167.
Cuban, Larry. 2008. Hugging the middle: How teachers teach in an era of testing and accountability. New York: Teachers’ College Press.
Damasio, Antonio. 1994. Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York: Grosset/Putnam.
Dewey, John. 2002. Human nature and conduct. Mineola: Dover Publications.
Haldane, John. 2004. Faithful reason: Essays Catholic and philosophical. London/New York: Routledge.
Harré, Rom, and E.H. Madden. 1975. Causal powers: A theory of natural necessity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
John of St. Thomas (Ioannes a S. Thoma). 1883. Cursus philosophicus Thomisticus. 9 vols. Paris: Ludovicus Vivès.
Lingard, Bob. 2010. Policy borrowing, policy learning: Testing times in Australian schooling. Critical Studies in Education 51(2): 129–147.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1985. After virtue, 2nd ed. London: Duckworth.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 2001. Dependent rational animals. La Salle: Open Court.
Maritain, Jacques. 1953. The range of reason. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
McNeil, Linda. 2000. Contradictions of school reform: Educational costs of standardized testing. New York: Routledge.
Millet, Stephan, and Alan Tapper. 2011. Benefits of collaborative philosophical inquiry in schools. Educational Philosophy and Theory. doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00727.x.
Mooney, T.Brian, and Mark Nowacki. 2011. Understanding teaching and learning. Exeter: Imprint Academic/St Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs.
Naus, John E. S.J. 1959. The nature of the practical intellect according to Saint Thomas Aquinas. Rome: Libreria Editrice Dell’ Università Gregoriana.
Paterson, Craig, and Matthew S. Pugh (eds.). 2006. Analytical Thomism: Traditions in dialogue. Aldershot/Burlington: Ashgate.
Pelizzo, Riccardo. 2010. Report on explicit teaching of analytical thinking skills through games-based facilitation for all courses (in primary and secondary schools) for higher academic achievement. Singapore: Ministry of Education, Singapore.
Schank, Roger. 2011. Singapore democratic party, Manifesto: Education. http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/manifestoeducation.html. Accessed 2 May 2011.
Searle, John. 1992. The rediscovery of the mind. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Seligman, Martin. 1975. Helplessness: On depression, development, and death. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
Shanmugaratnam, Tharman. 2006. Opening address. In Philosophy in schools: Developing a community of inquiry, report on the proceedings of the conference, ed. Ho Wah Kam and Henry Widjaja. Singapore: Singapore Teachers’ Union.
Simon, Yves. 1986. In The definition of moral virtue, ed. Vukan Kuic. New York: Fordham University Press.
Tallon, Andrew. 1997. Head and heart: Affection, cognition, volition as triune consciousness. New York: Fordham University Press.
Waterlow, Sarah. 1988. Nature, change, and agency in Aristotle’s physics: A philosophical study. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mooney, T.B., Nowacki, M. (2013). Aquinas on Connaturality and Education. In: Mooney, T., Nowacki, M. (eds) Aquinas, Education and the East. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5261-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5261-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5260-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5261-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)