La formación de la persona en el pensamiento de John Henry Newman

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation is presented in the Publications Compendium mode. It deals with the formation of the person in the thought of John Henry Newman (1801-1890). It analyzes his philosophical contributions to a profound approach to the formation of the person. That has meant recovering and analyzing aspects that have to do with Newman´s moral philosophy and his philosophy of the mind and theology. In this regard, it should be noted that Newman's work was not fundamentally addressed to the subject dealt with in the dissertation. Nonetheless, many of Newman's ideas about the formation of the person arise from his writings, and they also come from the evolution of his own life and his vision and university experience. As a university professor, Newman was committed to strengthening a way of critical thinking among students, which, in many of our universities nowadays, is often poorly developed. Newman´s original critical thinking will be effectively vital and shape in each student that mode of Aristotelian second nature. Therefore, the ideas of the English thinker analyzed in this thesis invite us to rescue the development of virtues, instead of the so-called educational competences, as well as the existential value of learning. Real assent is of great importance in Newman's educational and moral philosophy. Through real assent, knowledge is fixed once and for all in the person and it will be explained from different philosophical perspectives in the writings presented here. Also, Newman highlights the relevance of the illative sense, closely related to common sense, thanks to which what is learned is intimately integrated in every person. Although it is impossible for a person to grasp all the essential notes of things, Newman understands that we must be opened to the assent of firm realities. He calls this real assent, which goes far beyond the objectivity of capturing the necessary notional assent of which he also speaks. That is why the good trainer invites each student with his work, his example, his explanations and personal treatment to make the effort to go beyond his own notions, concepts, or personal creations, in which he is situated. These ideas are implemented for Newman in the building in every student of what he calls an imperial intellect. The idea of formation developed by Newman proclaims that each human being in the process of education assumes and tries to assent reality, as it exists without manipulating or modeling it at will. Newman's philosophy of mind underlines the value of training everyone in the power of logos, the word, which acts as an instrument for the propagation of truth. That is always about enlightening the student by logical rationality, connecting the premises and conclusions of the discourse, and clarifying the student's mind. It will also be done using the images that it creates through language. For Newman, the perfective growth and development of a person is given, on the one hand, by his logical capacity to engender certainties. Also, in a more profound and personal way, impelling for using personal conscience. The trainer will be able to use metaphors, inferences, analogies, and inductions that produce assent in the one who is being trained. It has to be done personally, both in humanistic subjects and in positive sciences such as physics, mathematics, etc.