To the classical thinker, vice lies at the opposite ends of a corresponding virtue (Aristotle's golden mean).

The Road to Dialectical Maturity: Doubt as a Tool and a Vice

by Wesley Walker

Since doubt has become a virtue to many people, there can be no real end goal. As a result, instead of using the term “doubt” to describe the tool in the student’s Dialectical development, it may e more helpful to think of this as “intellectual rigor”

To the classical thinker, vice lies at the opposite ends of a corresponding virtue (Aristotle's golden mean). A vice can be the manifestation of a virtue in extreme exaggeration or deprivation. Courage is an example of virtue. Its corresponding vices are impetuousness (the exaggeration), and pusillanimity (the deprivation). In post-Christian Christianity, doubt has unfortunately been elevated into a virtue and any type of certainty has been made a vice, a problem which can be traced back to Descartes. An example of this mentality can be found in progressive Christian scholar Peter Enns’ book The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires our Trust More than Our Correct Beliefs: “A faith that promises to provide firm answers and relieve our doubt is a faith that will not hold up to the challenges and tragedies of life.”

In post-Cartesian philosophy and theology, doubt has come to mean a kind of systematic skepticism. Other times it can stand for epistemic humility, as opposed to “certainty” which is toxic pride in one’s own beliefs. Oftentimes the two definitions are melded together: If one fails to exercise a constant doubt about truth claims, he must be exercising the vice, or sin, of certainty. However, to a classical educator, doubt takes on a different role: it is a tool. (Still, as with any tool, it can be misused and devolve into a vice.)

The classical worldview begins with the presupposition that Reason works. Classical Christian educators would add that Reason works because God has made the universe intelligible. Creation is an act of revelation through which he has made himself knowable to man. St. Paul tells us this in Romans 1:19 (RSV), “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” (See also Psalm 19:1.) The goal in education, then, is to holistically form our students into people who pursue God’s Truth not just with their heads but with their hearts, souls, and minds.

The Trivium is the means by which we tend to our students and cultivate them into whole people. During the Grammar (Poll-Parrott) stage, we give information to them. In the Dialectic (Pert) stage, they process that information. Finally, in the Rhetoric (Poetic) stage, the focus shifts to output of information. Said slightly differently, they are fed knowledge in the Grammar stage, they deconstruct that information in the Dialectic stage, and then reconstruct it in the Rhetorical stage. When we teach them this rhythm of learning, we instill in them tools which can propel them on the trajectory towards the Good.

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