THE PENDULUM

A philosopher spoke about how important it is for universities to strengthen the soul of the individual university and the souls of their students while at Elon University on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Whitely Auditorium.

Thomas Moore, an author of 16 books and a psychotherapist, discussed the importance of cultivating the soul. He focused on how all levels of education work hard to develop the mind, but should also spend time developing the soul.

"Education, if it touches the students soul, is a kind of therapeutics, in the sense that you are not just teaching and instructing the person, but the education itself can nurse the soul," Moore said. "It can give ideas to the student that will actually help them deal with life, and find out who they are. Education can do this, and maybe should do this."

He said that the soul has a dark side, but that people often do not mention this darker side. He said he does not romanticize this soul and referenced his psychoanalysis work. Moore said the people who call him are all going through tough times, and that attention to our souls primarily happens when things are going badly.

"When it comes to the soul of the university, let's not romanticize it or sentimentalize it," Moore said. "Let's realize that people are having wonderful days and going through wonderful experiences, and they are going through terrifying and terrible experiences, and going through loss."

Moore also said in the university setting students and faculty need to understand their ignorance. He said that when people are in touch with what they do not know it is a good thing, and that people should prize and value their ignorance. He mentioned the book "In Praise of Folly" by Desiderius Erasmus and how that book says our ignorance allows us to form relationships.

"In our ignorance we are able to connect to each other," Moore said. "It is not through out intelligence, it is through what we do not know. I know that goes against a lot of the ideals of a university. But I am saying to you that if you want to cultivate the soul in the university, you have to appreciate the other side of the picture, what we don't know."

Another way that Moore said the soul could be brought to the university is through celebrating uniqueness. He quoted Aristotle saying that the soul is what gives a thing its unique identity. He said that an academic setting should focus on fostering a unique and balanced environment, a unique history and unique students. One way he said this could be done was through arts.

"I don't think we understand too well the role of the arts," Moore said. "We tend to look at a piece of art and say, ‘What's that worth?' like in terms of money. And that's a weird thing to say about a painting. I would say to you that if you want to have a soulful university than the arts should not only be prevalent but prominent because they speak for the mystery of what the soul is."

He said that through education students should reach a level of maturity where they have the ability to create from exactly who they are. He said that educated people should be most themselves when they are contributing to the community.

"There is nothing wrong with seeing that part of education as training people to get a job and how to make a living," Moore said. "But that's kind of a bottom plank there is much more to go in education. That is to create citizens, in the Greek sense. Citizens who are individuals, not a collective, who can think for themselves, who can live their own lives, who can create out of their individuality."

Moore also said that one of the reasons that he was at Elon University was to celebrate the career of Richard McBride, who is retiring at the end of this academic year.

"I'm here to celebrate Richard McBride's career of service to the soul," Moore said. "And after spending two days closely with him I can see that he not only understands these ideas about the soul but lives them and leads other people to them."