But if the true Muse educates by means of philosophy, as Plato's Socrates says it does, then we should wonder why McCarthy says nothing about teaching philosophy to spirited young souls in Jesuit educational institutions. As part of Ong's Jesuit training, he studied philosophy extensively -- and he never regretted it.
Incidentally, Ong's book Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness (Cornell University Press, 1981), the published version of his 1979 Messenger Lectures at Cornell University, involves an extended discussion of what both Plato and Aristotle refer to as thumos (or thymos), even though Ong does not happen to advert explicitly to their terminology.
For further discussion of Aristotle's thought, see Barbara Koziak's book Retrieving Political Emotion: Thumos , Aristotle, and Gender (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
Now, I suspect that many spirited young males may tend to be misogynists. Consequently, it may be important to note here that the educational role that Plato's Socrates attributes to "the true Muse" may involve activating the feminine dimension in the male psyche.
For a discussion of the feminine dimension of the psyche as communion, see David Bakan's book The Duality of Human Existence: An Essay on Psychology and Religion (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1966).
Now, in the glossary entry on Aristotle's view of education (paideia) in the book Aristotle: Politics, translated by Joe Sachs (Indianapolis and Cambridge, UK: Focus Philosophical Library/ Hackett Publishing, 2012, page 261), Joe Sachs says that Aristotle views education as "The whole endeavor to develop the human potential, rather than to transmit specialized skills. The common education that should be the concern of the city includes gymnastic training, instruction in reading and writing, and a study and practice of music (Bk. VIII). Music has the most important role in education, which is the formation of a capacity to make right judgments about character and action (1340a 14-28). This concern with character is the education that Aristotle says can make a city one out of many (1236b 36-37), and is the only way to help people attain the self-discipline that allows oligarchies and democracies, or mixtures of them, to be ruled at all (1310a 12-36)."
In the glossary entry on Aristotle's view of who is serious (spoudaios) in the book Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Joe Sachs (Indianapolis and Cambridge, UK: Focus Philosophical Library/ Hackett Publishing, 2012, pages 210-211), Joe Sachs says that Aristotle means by serious, "Deserving respect. This is the word that Aristotle reserves for people of the highest human excellence, who see things as they are and know which of them are worth taking seriously (1113a 29-33), thus providing by their own judgment and choices, the standard for the rest of us to look to. To distinguish the meaning of the word from a mere grave attitude, which could be assumed by anyone, this translation always renders it by a phrase such as 'of serious stature,' or 'of serious worth.' The root sense of the word implies haste and urgency, or even anxiety (connotations which Aristotle reserves for the related word speustikos), but Aristotle decisively transforms the meaning of the word by arguing that a truly serious person takes few things seriously (1125a 12-16). In Bk. X, Chap. 6, as Aristotle's inquiry takes the next-to-last step toward the discovery of happiness, seriousness (spoude) becomes the ultimate criterion that makes an activity worthy of choice."
Of persons I have known and known of, I have the greatest respect for Walter J. Ong. His own Jesuit education included studying philosophy -- and according to Joe Sachs' glossary entry on education quoted above, Plato's Socrates says that "the true Muse educates by means of philosophy."
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