St. Thomas Aquinas Class Work: Introduction and Expectations
Description of the Artifact:
My Europe unit included a thematic focus of political philosophy. For each major era of Europe, we would highlight the work of one political philosopher of the age, and determine whether they supported or challenged their current government/system. We also examined how each philosopher would answer three main questions of political philosophy: (1) What is the ideal government? (2) Where does government receive its legitimacy/authority? (3) How should society be structured?
In our unit on Europe, we had a 4-day sub-unit on the middle ages. For the middle ages we examined the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Before the class work activity, we reviewed the tenants of feudalism, manorialism, the papacy, and European monarchies (see power point attached). In my introduction to Aquinas, I first discussed his “Five Proof” of god’s existence, so students could really grasp the theological nature of the era’s philosophical works. Then I provided a visual diagram of the “Great Chain of Being”.
After the lecture, students were asked to complete two major tasks for class work. First, students needed to create their own visual representation of the Great Chain of Being. In the second section, students were required to imagine themselves as Aquinas. They had to answer the three main questions of political philosophy (as discussed in the previous paragraph) as Aquinas. While I gave them insight into Aquinas and his priorities/preferences in the lecture, they had to fill in the gaps and consider how they would answer the three questions based on what they knew of him. This activity took about fifteen to twenty minutes to complete. The following analysis focuses on the second portion of the activity.
Many of my class's role-play activities have been larger writing assignments or simulations. I wanted to see how a smaller scale activity could incorporate role-play and still require a level of historical imagination and empathy. In this case, I really wanted to focus on interpolation, an aspect of historical imagination. Could students consider what they learned about a philosopher and make an educated guess about how he would answer specific questions? While there were primary sources that could illuminate Aquinas’ answers to the questions, I created an artificial gap in knowledge. Students were required to critically think about how Aquinas would answer those questions to fill in their gaps of knowledge. I also used this technique so students could uncover the content themselves, rather than read it or hear it in a lecture.
Desired goal:
Ideally, the students would have demonstrated all of the below criteria for this specific assignment.
Students needed to assume the role of St. Thomas Aquinas and answer the three questions of political philosophy. Since this was a short assignment, I expected only brief answers, 3-4 sentences each. Students needed to apply what the learned of Aquinas’s theological background to create answers that were appropriate for the philosopher. They could not answer with their own opinions. Below would be considered the correct content for each question, although students should have written in complete sentences with a more formal voice.
1) What is the ideal government? Monarchy
2) Where does government receive its legitimacy or authority? God
3) How should society be structured? According to the Great Chain of Being, with those closest to god at the top
Desired Elements of Historical Imagination:
1) Re-enactment:
To what extent were the students were the students required to demonstrate the ability to Re-enact?
The activity clearly required students to adopt the role of Thomas Aquinas. I did not, however, clarify the type of language they should use. The student's answers primarily needed to demonstrate that they considered how a deeply religious man in the middle ages would have answered questions concerning political philosophy.
2) Interpolation:
To what extent were the students were the students required to demonstrate the ability to interpolate?
This assignment ultimately focused on interpolation. I created an artificial gap in their knowledge by not explicitly telling them how Aquinas would have answered the political philosophy questions. They had to assume the role, consider Aquinas’ perspective, and make an educated guess about his probable response. I did eventually, fill in the gap with the correct answer, but students were first required to consider it themselves.
3) Interrogation
To what extent were the students were the students required to demonstrate the ability to interrogate sources?
N/A. There was no need to interrogate sources in this case.
Desired Elements of Historical Empathy:
1) Describe in-depth the role that students were asked to adopt.
The students were asked to assume the role of St. Thomas Aquinas. Therefore, students needed to answer the philosophical questions as a theologian from the high Middle Ages. God and religion should have been a prominent theme in the answers. It would also be ideal if they attempted to adopt a formal tone.
2) Were the students asked to explain their own perspective in addition to the role they were required to adopt? What do you expect will be the specific differences between these two perspectives and how are they limited to a specific historical time and place?
N/A Students were not asked to also explain their own perspective in comparison to Aquinas
My Europe unit included a thematic focus of political philosophy. For each major era of Europe, we would highlight the work of one political philosopher of the age, and determine whether they supported or challenged their current government/system. We also examined how each philosopher would answer three main questions of political philosophy: (1) What is the ideal government? (2) Where does government receive its legitimacy/authority? (3) How should society be structured?
In our unit on Europe, we had a 4-day sub-unit on the middle ages. For the middle ages we examined the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Before the class work activity, we reviewed the tenants of feudalism, manorialism, the papacy, and European monarchies (see power point attached). In my introduction to Aquinas, I first discussed his “Five Proof” of god’s existence, so students could really grasp the theological nature of the era’s philosophical works. Then I provided a visual diagram of the “Great Chain of Being”.
After the lecture, students were asked to complete two major tasks for class work. First, students needed to create their own visual representation of the Great Chain of Being. In the second section, students were required to imagine themselves as Aquinas. They had to answer the three main questions of political philosophy (as discussed in the previous paragraph) as Aquinas. While I gave them insight into Aquinas and his priorities/preferences in the lecture, they had to fill in the gaps and consider how they would answer the three questions based on what they knew of him. This activity took about fifteen to twenty minutes to complete. The following analysis focuses on the second portion of the activity.
Many of my class's role-play activities have been larger writing assignments or simulations. I wanted to see how a smaller scale activity could incorporate role-play and still require a level of historical imagination and empathy. In this case, I really wanted to focus on interpolation, an aspect of historical imagination. Could students consider what they learned about a philosopher and make an educated guess about how he would answer specific questions? While there were primary sources that could illuminate Aquinas’ answers to the questions, I created an artificial gap in knowledge. Students were required to critically think about how Aquinas would answer those questions to fill in their gaps of knowledge. I also used this technique so students could uncover the content themselves, rather than read it or hear it in a lecture.
Desired goal:
Ideally, the students would have demonstrated all of the below criteria for this specific assignment.
Students needed to assume the role of St. Thomas Aquinas and answer the three questions of political philosophy. Since this was a short assignment, I expected only brief answers, 3-4 sentences each. Students needed to apply what the learned of Aquinas’s theological background to create answers that were appropriate for the philosopher. They could not answer with their own opinions. Below would be considered the correct content for each question, although students should have written in complete sentences with a more formal voice.
1) What is the ideal government? Monarchy
2) Where does government receive its legitimacy or authority? God
3) How should society be structured? According to the Great Chain of Being, with those closest to god at the top
Desired Elements of Historical Imagination:
1) Re-enactment:
To what extent were the students were the students required to demonstrate the ability to Re-enact?
The activity clearly required students to adopt the role of Thomas Aquinas. I did not, however, clarify the type of language they should use. The student's answers primarily needed to demonstrate that they considered how a deeply religious man in the middle ages would have answered questions concerning political philosophy.
2) Interpolation:
To what extent were the students were the students required to demonstrate the ability to interpolate?
This assignment ultimately focused on interpolation. I created an artificial gap in their knowledge by not explicitly telling them how Aquinas would have answered the political philosophy questions. They had to assume the role, consider Aquinas’ perspective, and make an educated guess about his probable response. I did eventually, fill in the gap with the correct answer, but students were first required to consider it themselves.
3) Interrogation
To what extent were the students were the students required to demonstrate the ability to interrogate sources?
N/A. There was no need to interrogate sources in this case.
Desired Elements of Historical Empathy:
1) Describe in-depth the role that students were asked to adopt.
The students were asked to assume the role of St. Thomas Aquinas. Therefore, students needed to answer the philosophical questions as a theologian from the high Middle Ages. God and religion should have been a prominent theme in the answers. It would also be ideal if they attempted to adopt a formal tone.
2) Were the students asked to explain their own perspective in addition to the role they were required to adopt? What do you expect will be the specific differences between these two perspectives and how are they limited to a specific historical time and place?
N/A Students were not asked to also explain their own perspective in comparison to Aquinas