What the traditions said about learning this way

Categories 8, 8b26–28

Ἓν μὲν οὖν εἶδος ποιότητος ἕξις καὶ διάθεσις λεγέσθωσαν. Διαφέρει δὲ ἕξις διαθέσεως τῷ πολὺ χρονιώτερον εἶναι καὶ μονιμώτερον.

One sort of quality let us call ‘habit’ or ‘disposition’. Habit differs from disposition in being more lasting and more firmly established.

The Arabic Categories (al-Maqūlāt) 8, 8b26–28

فليُسَمَّ نوعٌ واحدٌ من الكيفية ملكةً وحالاً. وتخالف الملكةُ الحالَ في أنها أبقى وأطول زمانا: ومما يجري هذا المجرى العلومُ والفضائلُ

Let one kind of quality be called malaka and ḥāl. Malaka differs from ḥāl in being more lasting and longer in time; of this kind are the sciences and the virtues.

Translation of Aristotle's Categories, 8b26–28

Et una quidem species qualitatis habitus affectioque dicantur. Differt autem habitus affectione quod permanentior et diuturnior est

And let one species of quality be called habitus and affectio. Habitus differs from affectio in that it is more permanent and longer-lasting.

Summa theologiae I–II, q. 49, a. 1 and a. 2 ad 3

hoc nomen habitus ab habendo est sumptum. … Et sic dispositio fit habitus, sicut puer fit vir.

This word habitus is taken from habere, to have. … And so a disposition becomes a habit, as a boy becomes a man.

Metaphysics Δ.20, 1022b4

ἕξις δὲ λέγεται ἕνα μὲν τρόπον οἷον ἐνέργειά τις τοῦ ἔχοντος καὶ ἐχομένου

Hexis is said, in one sense, to be a kind of activity of the one who has and the thing had.

Muqaddima VI.45 (Rosenthal III:342)

والملكات لا تحصل إلا بتكرار الأفعال لأن الفعل يقع أولا وتعود منه للذات صفة ثم تتكرر فتكون حالا. ومعنى الحال أنها صفة غير راسخة ثم يزيد التكرار فتكون ملكة أي صفة راسخة.

Habits come about only by repeating acts. The act happens first, and a quality returns from it to the self; repeated, it becomes a state (ḥāl), which is a quality not yet rooted; the repeating grows, and it becomes a habit (malaka), that is, a firmly rooted quality.

Nicomachean Ethics II.1, 1103a32–b2

ἃ γὰρ δεῖ μαθόντας ποιεῖν, ταῦτα ποιοῦντες μανθάνομεν, οἷον οἰκοδομοῦντες οἰκοδόμοι γίνονται καὶ κιθαρίζοντες κιθαρισταί· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὰ μὲν δίκαια πράττοντες δίκαιοι γινόμεθα

We learn an art or craft by doing the things that we shall have to do when we have learnt it: for instance, men become builders by building houses, harpers by playing on the harp. Similarly we become just by doing just acts.

Muqaddima VI.45 (Rosenthal III:342)

اعلم أن اللغات كلها ملكات شبيهة بالصناعة إذ هي ملكات في اللسان للعبارة عن المعاني

Know that all languages are habits (malakāt) like the crafts, for they are habits in the tongue for expressing meanings.

Nicomachean Ethics II.1, 1103b21–25

καὶ ἑνὶ δὴ λόγῳ ἐκ τῶν ὁμοίων ἐνεργειῶν αἱ ἕξεις γίνονται. … οὐ μικρὸν οὖν διαφέρει τὸ οὕτως ἢ οὕτως εὐθὺς ἐκ νέων ἐθίζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ πάμπολυ, μᾶλλον δὲ τὸ πᾶν.

In a word, our moral dispositions are formed as a result of the corresponding activities. … It is therefore not of small moment whether we are trained from childhood in one set of habits or another; on the contrary it is of very great, or rather of supreme, importance.

Analects 1.1

學而時習之，不亦說乎？有朋自遠方來，不亦樂乎？

Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?

Muqaddima VI.48 (Rosenthal III:353)

ووجه التعليم لمن يبتغي هذه الملكة ويروم تحصيلها أن يأخذ نفسه بحفظ كلامهم القديم … حتى يتنزل لكثرة حفظه لكلامهم من المنظوم والمنثور منزلة من نشأ بينهم

The way to teach one who seeks this habit and wants to gain it is to set himself to memorising their old speech … until, from the sheer amount of their verse and prose he has by heart, he stands where one raised among them stands.

Institutio oratoria II.7.2–3

ediscere electos ex orationibus uel historiis … locos multo magis suadeam. … et adsuescent optimis, semperque habebunt intra se quod imitentur

I had much rather that for the purpose of learning by heart passages should be selected from the orators or historians. … They will form an intimate acquaintance with the best writings, will carry their models with them.

Xunzi 1, Encouraging Learning (勸學)

學不可以已。…學惡乎始？惡乎終？曰：其數則始乎誦經，終乎讀禮

Study should never stop. … What should one study? How should one begin? The art begins by reciting the Classics and ends in learning the rites.

Muqaddima VI.38 (Rosenthal III:302–3)

وقدم تعليم العربية والشعر على سائر العلوم كما هو مذهب أهل الأندلس. قال: «لأن الشعر ديوان العرب» … وهو لعمري مذهب حسن

He put the teaching of Arabic and of poetry before all the other sciences, as the people of al-Andalus do. He said: “For poetry is the register of the Arabs.” … By my life, it is a good method.

Phaedrus 276a

ὃς μετʼ ἐπιστήμης γράφεται ἐν τῇ τοῦ μανθάνοντος ψυχῇ

The word which is written with intelligence in the mind of the learner.

Institutio oratoria XI.2.40–41

Si quis tamen unam maximamque a me artem memoriae quaerat, exercitatio est et labor: multa ediscere, multa cogitare, et si fieri potest cotidie

If anyone asks me what is the one supreme method of memory, I shall reply, practice and industry. The most important thing is to learn much by heart and to think much, and, if possible, to do this daily.

Sūrat al-ʿAlaq 96:1, 4–5

ٱقْرَأْ بِٱسْمِ رَبِّكَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ … ٱلَّذِى عَلَّمَ بِٱلْقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ

Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth, … Who teacheth by the pen, Teacheth man that which he knew not.

Babylonian Talmud, ʿEruvin 54a

פתח פומיך קרי פתח פומיך תני כי היכי דתתקיים ביך

Open your mouth and read, open your mouth and study, so that it will endure in you.

Babylonian Talmud, ʿEruvin 53b–54a

ברוריה אשכחתיה לההוא תלמידא דהוה קא גריס בלחישה … אם ערוכה ברמ"ח אברים שלך משתמרת ואם לאו אינה משתמרת

Beruria found a student who was studying in a whisper. … If it is set out in all 248 of your limbs, it is kept; if not, it is not kept.

Institutio oratoria I.8.1–2

demonstrari nisi in opere ipso non potest. Vnum est igitur quod in hac parte praecipiam, ut omnia ista facere possit: intellegat.

There is much that can only be taught in actual practice. … In this portion of my work I will give but one golden rule: to do all these things, he must understand what he reads.

Muqaddima VI.36 (Rosenthal III:292)

اعلم أن تلقين العلوم للمتعلمين إنما يكون مفيدا إذا كان على التدريج شيئا فشيئا وقليلا قليلا

Know that teaching the sciences to learners is useful only when it goes by degrees, bit by bit and little by little.

Analects 2.11

溫故而知新，可以爲師矣。

If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.

Babylonian Talmud, Taʿanit 23a

אמר רבא היינו דאמרי אינשי או חברותא או מיתותא

Rava said: This is what people say: ‘Either companionship or death.’

Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 63b

הסכת עשו כתות כתות ועסקו בתורה לפי שאין התורה נקנית אלא בחבורה

“Attend [hasket]”, i.e. “form classes” and occupy yourselves with Torah, because Torah is only acquired in a class.

Mishnah, Avot 1:6

עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, וּקְנֵה לְךָ חָבֵר

Make unto thyself a master; and possess thyself of an associate.

Taʿlīm al-mutaʿallim, chapter on beginning the lesson (fī bidāyat al-sabaq)

ولا بد لطالب العلم من المذاكرة، والمناظرة، والمطارحة … وقيل: مطارحة ساعة، خير من تكرار شهر.

The student cannot do without going over the lesson together, debating it, and putting questions to one another. … It is said: an hour of exchange is better than a month of repetition.

Babylonian Talmud, Taʿanit 7a

הרבה למדתי מרבותי ומחבירי יותר מרבותי ומתלמידי יותר מכולן

I have learned much from my teachers, and from my companions more than from my teachers, and from my students more than from them all.

Moral Letters to Lucilius 7.8

cum his versare qui te meliorem facturi sunt, illos admitte quos tu potes facere meliores. Mutuo ista fiunt, et homines dum docent discunt.

Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.

Muqaddima VI.40 (Rosenthal III:307)

إلا أن حصول الملكات عن المباشرة والتلقين أشد استحكاما وأقوى رسوخا. فعلى قدر كثرة الشيوخ يكون حصول الملكات ورسوخها.

Habits gained by direct contact and by being taught face to face are firmer and more deeply rooted. The more teachers one has, the more habits one gains, and the deeper their roots.

Avot 6:6

בְּתַלְמוּד, בִּשְׁמִיעַת הָאֹזֶן, בַּעֲרִיכַת שְׂפָתַיִם … בְּדִקְדּוּק חֲבֵרִים, וּבְפִלְפּוּל הַתַּלְמִידִים

By learning, by a listening ear, by ordered speech, … by discussion with associates, by the argumentation of disciples.

al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, chapter on the greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar)

وأما الاشتقاق الأكبر فهو أن تأخذ أصلا من الأصول الثلاثية، فتعقد عليه وعلى تقاليبه الستة معنى واحدا

The greater derivation is that you take one of the three-letter roots and bind to it, and to its six rearrangements, a single meaning.

On Listening to Lectures (De recta ratione audiendi) 48c

οὐ γὰρ ὡς ἀγγεῖον ὁ νοῦς ἀποπληρώσεως ἀλλʼ ὑπεκκαύματος μόνον ὥσπερ ὕλη δεῖται, ὁρμὴν ἐμποιοῦντος εὑρετικὴν καὶ ὄρεξιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν.

For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.

Republic VII, 518b–c

τὴν παιδείαν οὐχ οἵαν τινὲς ἐπαγγελλόμενοί φασιν εἶναι τοιαύτην καὶ εἶναι. φασὶ δέ που οὐκ ἐνούσης ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ ἐπιστήμης σφεῖς ἐντιθέναι, οἷον τυφλοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὄψιν ἐντιθέντες.

Certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.

Muqaddima VI.49 (Rosenthal III:354)

صناعة العربية إنما هي معرفة قوانين هذه الملكة ومقاييسها خاصة. فهو علم بكيفية لا نفس كيفية.

The craft of grammar is only knowledge of the rules and measures of this habit. It is knowledge of a quality, not the quality itself.

Analects 2.15

學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆。

Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.

Muqaddima VI.39 (Rosenthal III:305)

ومن كان مرباه بالعسف والقهر من المتعلمين … سطا به القهر وضيق عن النفس في انبساطها وذهب بنشاطها ودعاه إلى الكسل وحمل على الكذب والخبث

Whoever among learners is brought up with harshness and force … is overpowered by it: it cramps the soul's openness, takes away its energy, leads it to laziness, and drives it to lying and deceit.