The works of St Albert the Great are slowly being translated into English. Some of them, like his Questions Concerning Aristotle’s On Animals, might not appear as helpful in today’s social context. After all, the text is a collection of ideas on the biological sciences, completely outdated, making portions of it quite humorous for us. On the other hand, for the scholar, it is an important work because it provides the scientific context in which scholastic thought argued anthropology. It also contains within insight which transcends the temporal barrier, and represents wisdom which might be useful for us to remember, even today. For this week, I thought an example of his understanding of the learning process could serve as useful reflection for all.
Book Eleven, Chapter Two
Whether the descriptive process is more necessary than the process that assigns causes.
One inquires further as to which process is more necessary.
And it seems to be the descriptive process. Because principles and suppositions are considered through description, and conclusions are considered through the assignment of causes. Since, then, principles are more necessary than conclusions, a knowledge [cognito] of principles is more necessary than a knowledge of the conclusions; this is why, etc.
In addition, “It is necessary that the one learning believe,” according to the Philosopher in the On Sophistical Refutations. But this is only the case if the descriptive mode is necessary, and therefore, etc.
The Philosopher says the opposite. For he says that the descriptive process is for the sake of teaching or for the sake of the one teaching, but the process that assigns causes is for the sake of both. Therefore, the second is more necessary.
To this, one must reply that in one way the first process is more necessary, and in another way the other is. The second process is more necessary for an advanced audience but the descriptive process is more necessary to those who are less advanced. In fact, the natural process is from cause to effect, and for learning about a particular thing the natural order is first to propose a conclusion and second to prove it, and this is why, speaking naturally, the descriptive process is prior, and the other process is second. And because a first thing can exist without a later thing, the first process is therefore more necessary, since knowledge can be introduced through description without knowledge of the cause; but knowledge of the cause cannot exist without some description, because it cannot be introduced without a supposition of the principle, and this is why, etc.
–St Albert the Great, Questions Concerning Aristotle’s On Animals. trans. Irven M. Resnick and KEnneth F. Kitchell Jr. (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2008), 339.
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