Chapter 1: The Liberal Arts
“In true liberal education…the essential activity of the student is to relate the facts learned into a unified, organic whole, to assimilate them as…the rose assimilates food from the soil and increases in size, vitality, and beauty.”
The liberal arts denote the 7 branches of knowledge; divided intro trivium (logic, grammar, and rhetoric), and quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy).
“The liberal arts, in contrast, teach one how to live; they 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.” (page 5)
The trivium is the means of all communication, therefore the instrument of all education.
Trivium
Logic: art of thinking
Grammar: art of inventing and combining symbols
Rhetoric: art of communication
Quadrivium
Discrete quantity or number
Arithmetic: theory of number
Music: application of arithmetic
Continuous quantity
Geometry: theory of space
Astronomy: application of geometry
The liberal arts denote the 7 branches of knowledge; divided intro trivium (logic, grammar, and rhetoric), and quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy).
“The liberal arts, in contrast, teach one how to live; they 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.” (page 5)
The trivium is the means of all communication, therefore the instrument of all education.
Trivium
Logic: art of thinking
Grammar: art of inventing and combining symbols
Rhetoric: art of communication
Quadrivium
Discrete quantity or number
Arithmetic: theory of number
Music: application of arithmetic
Continuous quantity
Geometry: theory of space
Astronomy: application of geometry
Chapter 2: The Nature and Function of Language
“The function of language is threefold: to communicate thought, volition, and emotion.”
Only humans are capable of expressing thought through sentences, and the two modes to communicate ideas are by imitation and by symbols.
“Words are symbols of ideas about reality.” I really like this sentence. It refers to the human capacity to create concepts in order to understand the world.
This chapter aims to explain the relation of language, humans, and reality. It defines concepts like essence, substance, Aristotle’s ten categories of being, and the relation of language with all of these. It also describes how knowledge is form and its relation with nature and our senses, emotions, logic, and reasoning. Also, it explains some problems of language such as the ambiguity that can raise from it from imposition and intention, and other forms of deliberate ambiguity like the metaphor and irony.
Only humans are capable of expressing thought through sentences, and the two modes to communicate ideas are by imitation and by symbols.
“Words are symbols of ideas about reality.” I really like this sentence. It refers to the human capacity to create concepts in order to understand the world.
This chapter aims to explain the relation of language, humans, and reality. It defines concepts like essence, substance, Aristotle’s ten categories of being, and the relation of language with all of these. It also describes how knowledge is form and its relation with nature and our senses, emotions, logic, and reasoning. Also, it explains some problems of language such as the ambiguity that can raise from it from imposition and intention, and other forms of deliberate ambiguity like the metaphor and irony.