Ch 1 - The Liberal Arts

Chapter 1 - The Liberal Arts

THE LIBERAL ARTS The liberal arts denote the seven branches of knowledge that initiate the young into a life of learning.

The Trivium and the Quadrivium The trivium - Logic, grammar, rhetoric -includes those aspects of the liberal arts that pertain to mind, and the quadrivium - arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy - those aspects of the liberal arts that pertain to matter. The Trivium: The three arts of language pertaining to the mind Logic is the art of thinking. Grammar, the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought. Rhetoric, the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance The Quadrivium: The four arts of quantity pertaining to matter (Discrete/Number and Continuous Quantity) Arithmetic is the theory of number, Music is the application of the theory of number (the measurement of discrete quantities in motion), are the arts of discrete quantity or number. Geometry is the theory of space, Astronomy, an application of the theory of space, are the arts of continuous quantity or extension.

The Seven Liberal Arts These arts of reading, writing, and reckoning have formed the traditional basis of liberal education. Historically the mastery of the liberal arts is widely recognized as the best preparation for work in professional schools, such as those of medicine, law, engineering, or theology - professions that serves others in a professional or other capacity. The degree bachelor of arts is awarded to those who demonstrate the requisite proficiency in these arts, and the degree master of arts, to those who have demonstrated a greater proficiency. Utilitarian arts: The utilitarian artist produces utilities that serve the wants of humanity; carpentry, masonry, plumbing, salesmanship, printing, editing, banking, law, medicine, or the care of souls Seven fine arts: If the artist is of the highest order, produces a work that is “a thing of beauty and a joy forever” and that has the power to elevate the human spirit; architecture, instrumental music, sculpture, painting, literature, the drama, and the dance The Liberal Vs the Utilitarian/Fine ArtsLiberal Art:The liberal arts when applied, the action begins in the agent and ends in the agent, who is perfected by the action; consequently, the liberal artist, far from being paid for his hard work, of which he receives the sole and full benefit, usually pays a teacher to give needed instruction and guidance in the practice of the liberal arts.The liberal arts train the faculties and bring them to perfection; they enable a person to rise above his material environment to live an intellectual, a rational, and therefore a free life in gaining truth.Utilitarian/Fine ArtsIn the exercise of both the utilitarian and the fine arts, although the action begins in the agent, it goes out from the agent and ends in the object produced and usually has a commercial value; and therefore the artist is paid for the work.The utilitarian or servile arts enable one to be a servant—of another person, of the state, of a corporation, or of a business—and to earn a living.

Definition. Comparison. Discrete quantity (Arithmetic and Music) vs Continuous quantity (Geometry and Astronomy)Discrete Quantity: that which must be divided into units, as numberContinuous Quantity: continued quantity, as duration, or extension.

Definition. Compare Transitive Vs Intransitive activitiesTransitive Activity:Both the utilitarian arts and the fine arts are transitive activities, whereas the essential characteristic of the liberal arts is that they are immanent or intransitive activities.

Classes of Goods The three classes of goods—valuable, useful, and pleasurable—illustrate the same type of distinction that exists among the arts. Valuable goods are those which are not only desired for their own sake but which increase the intrinsic worth of their possessor. For instance, knowledge, virtue, and health are valuable goods. Useful goods are those which are desired because they enable one to acquire valuable goods. For instance, food, medicine, money, tools, and books are useful goods. Pleasurable goods are those which are desired for their own sake because of the satisfaction they give their possessor. For instance, happiness, an honorable reputation, social prestige, flowers, and savory food are pleasurable goods. They do not add to the intrinsic worth of their possessor, nor are they desired as means, yet they may be associated with valuable goods or useful goods. For instance, knowledge, which increases worth, may at the same time be pleasurable; ice cream, which is nourishing food, promotes health, and is, at the same time, enjoyable.

Science and ArtEach of the liberal arts is both a science and an art in the sense that in the province of each there is something to know (science) and something to do (art). An art may be used successfully before one has a formal knowledge of its precepts i.e. a child of three may use correct grammar even though the child knows the rules of grammar.Similarly, logic and rhetoric may be effectively used by those who do not know the precepts of these arts. It is, however, desirable and satisfying to acquire a clear knowledge of the precepts and to know why certain forms of expression or thought are right and wrong. The trivium is the organon, or instrument, of all education at all levels because the arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric are the arts of communication itself in that they govern the means of communication—namely, reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Thinking is inherent in these four activities. Reading and listening, for example, although relatively passive, involve active thinking, for we agree or disagree with what we read or hear. The trivium is used vitally when it is exercised in reading and composition. It was systematically and intensively exercised in the reading of the Latin classics and in the composition of Latin prose and verse by boys in the grammar schools of England and the continent during the sixteenth century. This was the training that formed the intellectual habits of Shakespeare and other Renaissance writers. The result of it appears in their work. (See T.W. Baldwin, William Shakespeare’s Small Latine and Lesse Greeke. Urbana: The University of Illinois Press, 1944.5) The trivium was basic also in the curriculum of classical times, the Middle Ages, and the post-Renaissance. In the Greek grammar of Dionysius Thrax (ca.166 B.C.), the oldest extant book on grammar6 and the basis for grammatical texts for at least thirteen centuries, grammar is defined in so comprehensive a manner that it includes versification, rhetoric, and literary criticism. Grammar is an experimental knowledge of the usages of languages as generally current among poets and prose writers. It is divided into six parts: (1) trained reading with due regard to prosody [versification]; (2) exposition, according to poetic figures [rhetoric]; (3) ready statement of dialectical peculiarities and allusion; (4) discovery of etymologies; (5) the accurate account of analogies; (6) criticism of poetical productions which is the noblest part of grammatical art. Because communication involves the simultaneous exercise of logic, grammar, and rhetoric, these three arts are the fundamental arts of education, of teaching, and of being taught. Accordingly, they must be practiced simultaneously by both teacher and pupil. The pupil must cooperate with the teacher; he must be active, not passive. The teacher may be present either directly or indirectly. When one studies a book, the author is a teacher indirectly present through the book. Communication, as the etymology of the word signifies, results in something possessed in common; it is a oneness shared. Communication takes place only when two minds really meet. If the reader or listener receives the same ideas and emotions that the writer or speaker wished to convey, he understands (although he may disagree); if he receives no ideas, he does not understand; if different ideas, he misunderstands. The same principles of logic, grammar, and rhetoric guide writer, reader, speaker, and listener.