The Seven
Aquinas- Liberal Arts are tools by which knowledge is
fashioned. The Greeks separated
the sciences and the arts. The
sciences were a means by which any subject could be examined. Art began with imitation. Art is between imitation and science. Aquinas- the liberal arts are used to
produce the works of reason. This
is a epistemological study of what is true knowledge and an acceptance that
Aquinas got it right when understanding true science or “knowledge” to be using
the liberal arts and resting in reason.
The authors do no defend their acceptance of a rationalist approach with
Holy Scripture so this is a “wait and see.” They believe the seven liberal arts learned by way of
imitation are the starting point for education and must come before philosophy
and the final end or purpose which is theology.
Trivium
“Grammar speaks, dialect teaches words and rhetoric colors
words.” The classical
liberal arts are a product of a Christian synthesis in the early middle
ages. A brief history of what
Christians understood to be grammar shows that knowing the classical languages
were the end goal.
In the dialect of the trivium there was an emphasis on not
just the rules of logic but on the dialogues in first Plato and then
Aquinas. These teach what
questions are worth asking and answering which is a necessary lead into
philosophy and theology.
Under rhetoric the authors rightly sum up the attempt to
bring persuasion and truth together.
However, I don’t agree that Aristotle’s book on rhetoric is not
sufficient.
Implications: “practice these arts in a form that respects
their true nature.” The second one
I will shorten to “teachers need to learn Greek and then teach it to their
students if you want them to be truly classically educated.”
I am not convinced.
The trivium can be defended biblically as it follows what the Bible
describes as developmental stages in a child. The goal for me has never been to be “classically” educated
or trained but to use a classical approach to be educated.
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