“You know when you do not know.”

This is the Socratic dictum. It means that the greatest form of learning is when one knows that he knows so much, yet he knows that he knows so little. Aristotle said in his Metaphysics that, all human beings, by nature desire to know. This is because knowledge is the perfection of man’s essence, which is rationality. Thus, from the beginning of man’s life until its end, man strives for the acquisition of knowledge.

When a child is born, he begins to wonder about the things around him. This is the first step to philosophy – wonder. He becomes curious about the stars, the sun, the moon, trees, shrubs, flowers, birds, fishes, and everything else. He begins to ask, what is this? What is that? Why is this so? How is that? He starts to experiment on things. He begins from what color to put on his coloring book to how long will the heat of the sun burn a dried leaf through a magnifying glass, and even how high can he build a skyscraper with his LEGO blocks.

As he grows up, he would begin to discover that the sum of one plus one is two and the product of three times two is six. He would be taught that matter is anything that occupies space and has mass, and that the atom is the basic composition of matter. When he gets a job, he would learn that the key to promotion is determination and ignorance is not really bliss. When he marries, he would discover that marriage is made in heaven and honesty is the best policy. If he does not marry, he would realize that there are many other ways towards happiness and fulfillment. If he is gifted with a child, he would learn that children are God’s gift to mankind. And when finally his last few moments on earth is almost done, it would dawn on him that life is fulfilled only when one is loved and he has loved others as well.

This is the course of man’s life: to begin from learning and to end in learning. The only thing that differentiates one man from another in learning is the quantity and quality of what is learned. St. Thomas Aquinas’ epistemology declares that the knowledge of the knower depends on his capacity. This means that the quantity and quality of the knowledge of the knower will correspond to his knowing capacity. Hence, man has his geniuses and also his fools. Here, however, lie some questions. Can man’s intelligence be measured by what he has learned? Can his intellectual capacity be gauged by the knowledge he has acquired? Is his rationality and intellect defined by his grades?

Many people today especially those who are trying to get a job depend on:

1. Their technical capacity
2. College grades
3. Reputation of the university they graduated from
4. Intelligence
5. Wit
6. Some on sex appeal
7. Others get influential people to recommend them for the job.

Among these things, however, the most impressive criterion for employers in hiring a person for a job is the transcript of college grades. This transcript serves as the “trademark” of the applicant. It would determine his “quality,” whether he be a “high-quality” or a “low-quality” product. This is the “measure” of his competence. This “is” him.

Man, however, is dynamic. As a contingent being, he is always in motion. Motion presupposes change. Hence, man is always changing. He is always undergoing development. According to Aristotle, man is composed of matter and form. His body is the matter, while his soul (intellect) is the form. Without one of these, man is not man. Man’s body and soul, therefore, are always changing, always undergoing development. Thus, since man’s intellect and his body are always dynamic, in motion, changing, man cannot be contained in a single manuscript. His “quality” cannot in any way be defined by a transcript. What man “is,” man is not.

Man should not, therefore, study hard and strive to learn just because of the grade. He must realize that this grade actually delimits him as a person. It puts a tag on him, a mark, a classification, a boundary. This grade fences his intellectual capacity in and determines his rational capability. It undermines his essence as a human person.

Unconsciously, man is striving to attain his own mockery. He is trying to achieve the one thing that insults his essence as a human person. Evil can hide beneath the good. Humiliation can hide beneath the glory – the glory of high grades. Hence, man must try to see through this illusion. He must try to wake himself up from this hallucination. He must struggle to free himself from the manacles of deceitful glory and fulfillment from high grades and redirect himself towards the perfection of his being. Man must strive not to attain high grades; rather, he must strive to achieve greater learning.

For St. Thomas,

1. The basis of knowledge is the sensible things,
2. There are no innate ideas
3. The intellect can abstract the forms from sensory images.

Accordingly, Aristotle stated that in the beginning, man’s rationality and intellect are in the state of tabula rasa (empty table). This means that there are no preconceived ideas in the human mind. Furthermore, he also said that nothing comes to the mind without passing through the senses. This is learning. Man’s knowledge is from without, not from within. His intellect is fed by his senses. The five senses of the human person serves as the five windows through which the rays of knowledge shines upon his soul. This knowledge becomes a part of man, his own possession. Thus, through learning, man is capable of possessing practically everything that surrounds him. He can make the world his own.

Man, however, must not be contented with learning only simple things. In ethics, the higher the value a thing has, the greater the goodness it possesses. Accordingly, the greater the learning is, the higher the value it has and the greater the goodness it possesses. This illustrates the legitimacy of striving for greater learning.

The most obvious question that now surfaces is what is greater learning? Is greater learning the mastery of Einstein’s E = mc2? Is it knowing that the Antidiuretic hormone of the human body inhibits urine production? Or is it discovering that the solar system does not only have nine planets revolving around the sun? Or maybe, greater learning means earning a bachelor’s degree, or a master’s degree, or even a doctorate degree. Are these only what greater learning has to offer?

One description of philosophy is that it is unending, dynamic, always trying to find something to exhaust. For Aristotle and St. Thomas, philosophy is the study of first causes and principles. It is the quest for the final and ultimate reasons of things. Philosophy, in fact, is going into the rational foundations of things, because rationality cannot be narrowed down to what is logical and scientific. Similarly, greater learning is not only mere logic and science. It is something which is deeper and a lot more superior to other forms of learning. It is not contented in approximate or near reasons, rather, it investigates for the deeper and final reasons of reality. Greater learning does not necessarily offer answers to all sorts of questions, rather, it offers the opportunity to seek for answers for the most significant, yet most unnoticed queries. In philosophy, sometimes the question is more important than the answer. Greater learning is the opportunity to ask these questions as well as to seek for their answers.

Engraved on the entrance of temple of the Oracle of Delphi is the inscription “Know thyself!” Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. This is actually where higher learning begins – oneself. Greater learning sprouts from the examination of one’s self. It then grows through the continuous understanding of one’s self and finally blooms and bears fruit in the continuous understanding of other beings. It is watered by questions such as, who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? It is warmed by inquiries such as, does God exist? Is man free? Did God create evil in the world? It is nurtured by queries like, is the sensible world a world of reality? Is there really life after death? What is the ultimate goal of my being?

Aristotle said that the ultimate end of human existence is eudaimonia (happiness). St. Thomas Christianized this by saying that the ultimate end of man is God, because apparently happiness can only be achieved in God. St. Augustine stated that things should be used for the sake of God. Moreover, he also said that an ordered love is using something within the limits of its own capacity, otherwise it is disordered love. This precisely explains the sole purpose of greater learning.

Greater learning is ought to be used as a means towards an end, specifically, towards man’s ultimate end. It should be used to achieve eudaimonia, to be able to go back to God. Greater learning is capable of leading man back to God, and it must be used that way and not for anything else. It would be a great injustice to it if it would only be used for its own sake or for the sake of lesser things. Greater learning is a means towards God; it ought to be used for the sake of God.

“You know when you do not know.”

This is the Socratic dictum. Man must strive for greater learning. Man must strive to learn for the sake of God. Man must strive to go back to God. Yet, he must know when to stop, stop in awe, reflect, pray, and marvel at the glory of God.