Thomism and science education: history informs a modern debate

There is no debate over the Theory of Evolution. Among biologists the Theory of Evolution is a settled principle. Yet, the issue is far from settled in the larger context of society; between sectors of lay society and biological scientists in the United States there is evidence of a deep divide. Faith and reason, religion, and science at odds-that is hardly a recent divide. It is the premise of the author that the origin of the current conflict over the teaching of evolution stems from a fundamental philosophical divide that began long before Darwin first proposed his Theory of Evolution. It predates the inclusion of physical and biological sciences in the curriculum of western universities. It is older than either Islam or Christianity. The conflict goes back to Plato's Academy in 385 BC where the schools of Idealism and Realism first emerged as two distinct philosophical systems. Idealism and Realism diverged over essential issues of philosophy: What are we, what is true, and how do we know? Answers to these questions about the natural order are framed within philosophical constructs, themselves based upon essential assumptions about the essence of being, the essence of truth, and the nature of learning. Idealism and Realism developed independently for over 1500 years into two competing schools: the Augustinians (fundamentally Idealists) and the Latin Averroists (fundamentally Realists). It was over the place of natural philosophy in the curriculum that these two competing schools collided violently at the University of Paris in 1252. It was Thomas Aquinas who brokered a ceasefire between two embattled schools. Aquinas forged a philosophical system, called Thomism, that allowed the two schools to agree to disagree to the extent that in the graduate curriculum of the University Natural Philosophy could be taught apart from theology. This separation of secular or natural philosophy from theology opened the way for the development of the empirical sciences, the effects of which are evident today. All but forgotten, however, is that Thomism provided a system for resolving the disparities between these two separate ways of knowing, not by compartmentalizing them into separate domains, but by proving the domains to be philosophically complementary, creating a holistic framework in which to reconcile apparent conflicts between theology (religion) and natural philosophy (science). The essence of this historic compromise and its implications for the teaching of the Theory of Evolution form the core of this article.