What is a true liberal arts education?

The concept of liberal education has long been proposed, but as long as philosophy has not been completed, then it will not be clearly defined. And now, with the realization of philosophy, liberal education can not only be defined, but also be thoroughly implemented.

Liberal education is essentially a philosophical or scientific education in a broad sense, which covers all forms of knowledge of human civilization, which in turn actually exist systematically. This requires further elucidation of this system so that the structure of liberal education can be presented more clearly.

The bottom of this systematized knowledge is established by the narrow philosophy, which confirms the knowledge about the true and ultimately gives the truth. The purpose of narrow philosophy is to confirm what man himself is, and truth is knowledge about the self. But truth cannot actually be directly confirmed because it is again essentially knowledge about intuition, and since intuitive facts are implicit and cannot be understood by non-intuitive people, universal knowledge about it has been impossible to form. This is the reason why narrow philosophy has been slow to materialize.

And the reason why narrow philosophy is still possible lies in the existence of art. Because art is essentially the self-expression of man in an intuitive state, and the non-intuitive can appreciate art, then art becomes a universal fact. In this way, if one can confirm the essence of art - poetry - one can confirm the truth. And this knowledge does in fact exist, and it is also poetics. This means that poetics is in fact philosophy in the narrow sense, which is able to confirm the true existence of man.

And with the realization of poetics, it is accordingly possible to confirm the knowledge of the principle of art, which is a knowledge of the representation of the true. This representation of the true gives rise to beauty, and thus the principle of art is in fact the principle of aesthetics.

If one looks at the aesthetic principle, it necessarily already includes the knowledge of poetics, and the education of its implementation is aesthetic education. Since the knowledge of truth is confirmed by art, the corresponding education is inseparable from aesthetic education. This is how the fundamental position of aesthetic education is established.

At the same time, it is necessary to realize that man can confirm himself through poetics, but at this point man has only overcome nothingness and has not yet established his freedom. The problem of freedom is a problem of publicness, and man has ultimate self-realization only when he solves a problem of publicness - legislates it.

And for the person-entity that has established itself, this publicness is inherently present, and then this compulsion of man to solve an inherently public problem creates a moral contingency. If one can implement a moral law at the level of actuality, one can finally overcome this problem of publicness and thus have one's own freedom. This knowledge, which establishes man's own freedom, is moral philosophy, and its corresponding education is moral education. The place of moral education in the whole systematization of knowledge is thus above aesthetic education. Moreover, only when aesthetic education is realized is further moral education possible.

But only aesthetic and moral education is still not enough, because at this time man is not yet engaged in self-realization in the realm of freedom, and self-realization is correspondingly present in intellectual education. Obviously, direct intellectual education is inappropriate, because only under the guarantee of aesthetic and moral education can we know the purpose of intellectual education, namely, that it is for self-realization, which is possible only on the basis of true freedom and ultimately leads to happiness.

It can be seen that aesthetic education, moral education and intellectual education cover all forms of human knowledge, and what they establish together is liberal education. Liberal education is a manifestation of the inherent requirement of human self-realization, and it is also a manifestation of the inherent requirement of human civilization.

Now, with the realization of poetics and moral philosophy, liberal education has become possible. This is the essential education that human education must achieve, and based on this education, human beings can have true civilization.