介绍

St. 约翰学院是一个致力于博雅教育的社区. 通识教育人士, 学院认为, acquire a lifelong commitment to the pursuit of fundamental knowledge 和 to the 搜索 for unifying ideas. 他们是 intelligently 和 critically appreciative of their common herit年龄 和 conscious of their social 和 moral obligations. 他们是 well-equipped to master the specific skills of any calling, 和 they possess the means 和 the will to become free 和 responsible citizens.

St. 约翰的 College is persuaded that a genuine liberal education requires the study of great books—texts of words, 符号, 笔记, 还有图片——因为它们既永恒又及时. 这些书是最重要的老师. They illuminate the persisting questions of human existence 和 they bear directly on the problems we face today. 他们表达得最原始, 通常是最完美的, the ideas by which contemporary life is knowingly or unknowingly governed. Their authors can speak to us almost as freshly as when they spoke for the first time, for what they have to tell us is not of merely academic concern, 它离我们的真正利益也不远. They change our minds, move our hearts, 和 touch our spirits.

书以不止一种方式对我们说话. 在提出持续存在的人类问题时, they lend themselves to different interpretations that reveal a variety of independent 和 yet complementary meanings. 在寻求真相的同时, they please us as works of art with a clarity 和 a beauty that reflect their intrinsic intelligibility. 他们是, 因此, 恰当地说，伟大, 无论是史诗还是政治论文, 以及它们的主题是否科学, 历史, 或哲学. 它们也是连在一起的, 对每一个都进行了介绍, 支持, 或者被别人批评. 从这个意义上说，它们彼此交谈, 他们吸引读者参与进来, 在他们的能力范围内, 在一个大而持续的谈话中.

然而，这种谈话不可避免地是片面的. 这些书只能重复它们要说的话, 没有提供我们想要的澄清. 克服这一限制是澳门金沙网赌登陆的研讨会. 这里有许多不同背景的学生, 面对一篇可能呈现不熟悉思想的文章, 试着合理地讨论一下. It is presupposed that the students are willing to 提交 their opinions to one another’s questions. The dem和s of the individual 和 those of the group are in continuous interplay, setting limits within which the discussion moves with the utmost possible freedom. The discussion may concern itself primarily with trying to establish the meaning of a poem or the validity of an argument. It may concern itself with more general or with very contemporary questions that thrust themselves forward. The students bring to the seminar the assumptions they have derived from their experience in the contemporary world. 通过讨论，他们获得了新的观点, which enables them to recognize both the sameness of a recurrent problem 和 the variety of its 历史 manifestations.

主要是, 然而, 这样做的目的不是为了弄清事情的原委, but how things are—to help students gain underst和ing 和 make reasonable decisions in whatever circumstances they face. And it is the ultimate aim of the Program that the habits of thought 和 discussion thus begun by the students should continue with them throughout their lives.

澳门金沙网赌登陆的演讲以讨论的形式进行. The conversational methods of the seminar are carried over into other classes. 尽可能多, 所有研讨会的实际指导, 教程, 和 laboratories is made to depend on the activity 和 initiative of the students. 导师的作用是指导, more intent on listening to the students 和 working with them than imposing upon them their own underst和ings.

St. 约翰试图恢复博雅教育的真正意义. The primary function of the liberal arts has always been to bring about an awareness of the forms that are embodied in combinations of words 和 in numbers so that they become means of underst和ing. 传统上, 文科有7门:语法, 修辞, logic—the arts of langu年龄; 和 arithmetic, 几何, 音乐, 还有天文学——数学的艺术. 用更现代的说法, the liberal arts bring to light what is involved in the use of words 和 numbers in all kinds of discursive thought, 在分析, 说话, 和 写作; 和 also in measuring, 推导, 和展示.

发展这些艺术有很多方法. 课程强调其中的六个:讨论, 翻译, 写作, 实验, 数学证明, 音乐分析. They all serve the same end: to invite the students to think freely 和 critically for themselves. 通过这些方法, 学生将能够设想实际情况, to deliberate by articulating clear alternatives with the hope of arriving at a proper choice. The acquisition of these intellectual skills will serve the students who have learned them throughout their lives.

Knowledge advances 和 the fundamental outlook of humanity may change over the centuries, but these arts of underst和ing remain in one form or another indispensable. These arts enable all human beings to know the world around them 和 to know themselves in this world, 并以智慧运用这些知识. 在这些艺术的指导下, they can free themselves from the constraint of prejudice 和 the narrowness of beaten paths. Under their discipline, they can acquire the habit of listening to reason. A genuinely conceived liberal arts curriculum cannot avoid aiming at these most far-reaching of all human goals.

澳门金沙网赌登陆学院是人类智力的解放. 这是一种全民教育, 不管一个人的种族, 性, 国家或民族出身, 年龄, 宗教, 残疾, 婚姻状况, 性取向, 或者性别认同和表达. By reading great books 和 struggling together with the fundamental questions that they raise, students 和 their teachers learn from their differences 和 discover more deeply their shared humanity. In this 和 other ways, a diversity of background 和 experience enriches our community of learning. 因为它为所有人提供教育，澳门金沙网赌登陆的 College has sought 和 continues to seek to make its program of study known 和 available to people of diverse backgrounds.

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