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An art
as used in the “liberal arts,” is a
mode of producing something other than the art itself.
The liberal arts are ordered to producing knowledge and
therefore are the arts of thinking.
In fact, the Latin word "artes",
from which we derive our word art, is their translation
of the Greek word "techne," from which we derive words
like technique and technology.
When a person learns an art, he
directs his attention to learning a skill, not content
or information about a subject (even if that subject is
called "art").
The liberal arts are not,
therefore, concerned with a general familiarity with a
wide range of subjects. Instead, they are concerned with
the foundational skills of thinking that are needed to
learn any subject.
See "The
seven liberal arts" below to learn more about these
skills.
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A Science
is a mode of inquiry or a domain of
knowing that arises from that mode of inquiry. “Science”
comes from the Latin word “scientia” which means
knowledge and is by no means limited to the knowledge
provided by the natural sciences.
Below you will see that the
sciences include the natural sciences, the humane or
moral sciences, the philosophical sciences, and the
science of theology. This order is rooted in the common
experience of all people everywhere.
The goal of a science is to know
the causes of things.
In the 17th century,
natural scientists began to arrogate the use of the term
science to their own inquiries, rejecting anything that
stood outside their tools of investigation.
As classical
educators, we reject this assertion and use the term in
its more accurate and more classical sense.
See
The Four Sciences
below for further explanations of each of these domains
of knowledge.
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The Seven Liberal Arts
are the arts of thinking. According to the Christian
classical tradition, human rationality sets them apart
from other animals. In particular, humans are uniquely
able to think using symbols. Those symbols include
words, numbers, shapes, and musical and visual
representations.
The skillful and fitting use of
verbal symbols (language) is essential to the full
development of our humanity. The arts developed to
refine our ability to use language:
are the three arts of the trivium:
Grammar
Logic/Dialectics
Rhetoric
In addition, no other animal can
use numbers and shapes like we can. Even music arises
from our ability to hear with our soul the relationships
of numbers in their ratios and proportions. The arts
developed to refine our ability to use numbers, shapes,
and their relations are:
the four arts of the
quadrivium:
Arithmetic
Geometry
Music
Astronomy
These seven are called the liberal
arts because they are both the arts that every free
person is free to master and the arts that are
required to be free. A community that fails to
master the arts of the trivium cannot be a free
community. For example, he who is not a master of the
art of logic is a victim of manipulators, both external
(in society) and internal (in the soul), while he who is
not a master of the art of rhetoric will be unable to
express his thoughts appropriately.
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The Trivium
consists of the three verbal arts of grammar,
dialectic or logic, and rhetoric. To be free the
individual must be able to use language effectively and
to understand it deeply.
Grammar comes
from the Greek word grammatikos, which is best
translated "letters" and carries all the meanings of our
word letters. Grammar cultivates the skill of
interpreting symbols, first, individual letters or
phonemes, then words, and ultimately texts, works of
art, and artifacts.
Logic
or dialectics is the art of formal and material
reasoning.
Formal logic asks, "How do we think correctly?" i.e.
"What is the form of valid thought?"
Material Logic asks "What do we think about?" i.e. "What
is the matter of thought?"
We recommend the
Memoria Press materials on
Formal and
Material Logic by Martin Cothran as well as The Lost
Tools of Writing, the CiRCE Institute writing
curriculum.
Rhetoric is
the art of the fitting expression, though Aristotle
reduces it to the art of persuasion.
We have developed
The Lost Tools of Writng as the foundation for a
rhetoric program and recommend it to your consideration.
In addition, Dorothy Sayers
developed a theory and application of the trivium that
suggests that each art corresponds to a general stage in
a child's growth. Much of the modern renewal of
classical education feeds on this interpretation.
For more on this approach, see our
description in
models of classical education or click
here
to read her very influential essay.
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The Quadrivium
consists of the four mathematical arts. To be able
to reason both logically and aesthetically, the
individual must be able to interact with what the
ancients called magnitude (geometry and astronomy) and
multitude (arithmetic and music or harmonics). The mind
not trained in the quadrivium is not yet ready to be
educated.
Arithmetic
is the art that learns of the properties of numbers,
that is, "how do numbers behave?" What happens to seven
if it meets five? What will eight do if we multiply
it by four?
Geometry is
the art that learns the properties of shapes. It asks,
"How do shapes behave?" It is essential to deductive
logic and spatial reasoning.
Music is the
art of ratios and proportions. It asks, "How do numbers
behave in relation to each other?" Algebra is a
super-efficient and abstract way of expressing musical
properties. However, to fully benefit from music, it
should not be reduced to algebra.
Music is the window or
even the doorway between the physical and the spiritual.
When a student listens to mathematically sound
compositions, the order of mathematics sings directly to
the soul through the ear, not needing to pass through
the understanding, as it does in arithmetic.
Astronomy
is the art of shapes in motion. It asks, "How do shapes
behave when they are moving?" Practically, it is the
doorway to physics and the sciences.
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The Four Sciences
The
Natural Sciences
are the sciences of the physical order, such as
biology, chemistry, and physics. All other sciences
either combine or refine these three.
A science is a domain of knowing
ordered by a unifying principle (logos).
Biology is ordered by the
attempt to know the causes of being and change within
and among living things.
Physics is ordered by the
inquiry into the forces that bring about change in the
physical realm.
Chemistry is ordered by the
inquiry into the elements of which physical things
consist.
The mode of inquiry of the natural
sciences is investigation into the material and
efficient causes. Observation and measurement are
particularly apt to this domain.
The goal of the natural sciences is
to know the causes of change in the physical world so
that one can act wisely and virtuously in relation to
the cosmos.
The
Humane Sciences
are the sciences of the moral order; that is, they
are the sciences of human behavior and the soul, namely
ethics and politics.
Ethics asks the question,
how does a human being fulfill its potential, i.e. how
does it attain excellence or its own flourishing. In a
word, how does a human become virtuous. Many studies
come under ethics so understood, such as psychology.
Politics asks the question,
how can a human community enable its members and itself
to fulfill its potential, to attain excellence, to
flourish. In a word, how can a human community cultivate
the virtue of its members. Studies that come under
politics so understood include economics, history, etc.
Prior to the 17th
century, what we now call aesthetics was a humane
science, having to do with human behavior. The humane
sciences are built upon but higher than the natural
sciences.
The mode of inquiry suited to the
humane sciences is a dialectical engagement with works
of art, historical inquiry, and close reflection on the
movements of the human soul.
The goal of the humane sciences is
to know the causes of human behavior so that one can
attain virtue in oneself and cultivate it in others.
The Philosophical
Sciences
are the sciences of metaphysics and epistemology. All of
the tools of the lower sciences are used for
philosophical knowledge, but the unique tools of philosophical inquiry are a highly refined form of
dialectics and contemplation.
The goal of the philosophical
sciences is to know the causes of and limits of human
knowledge and to know causality itself.
It is in metaphysics that the
distinction between modernist education and classical
education is most clearly seen. To the modernist,
especially after Dewey, metaphysics is a waste of time
because we can only know what the natural sciences
reveal to us. Thus modern education is driven by
experimentation and measurement.
In addition, the modernist educator
has determined that knowledge is the adaptation of an
organism to its environment.
The classical educator is
deliberately metaphysical and does not approach
philosophy with despair. He believes that the world we
live in is real and that it is knowable.
Therefore, for the classical
educator, knowledge is gained when the seeker encounters
an idea embodied or incarnated in concrete reality.
When the modernist educator
teaches, his goal is an adaptation to the environment,
or what is commonly called a practical application.
When a classical educator teaches,
his goal is wisdom and virtue. This will have plenty of
practical applications, but it will also include the
ability to know when not to adapt to the environment -
when to resist it and when to be martyred by it.
The irony is that the modernist
disables his student from sound practical applications
because he has misrepresented reality and thereby made
it difficult to adapt to it. Meanwhile, the classical
educator has enabled the student to think in terms of
circumstances without abandoning virtue.
The Theological Sciences
are the sciences concerned with knowledge of the
first cause, or of God Himself. All of the tools of the
lower sciences are used for theological knowledge, but
the Christian recognizes that Divine Revelation reveals
things that the other sciences cannot discover.
The goal of theology is to know the
first cause and, as a result, to order all knowledge to
that first cause.
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Classical Modes
of Instruction
Mimetic (Didactic) Instruction
applies the Christian classical idea that
humans learn and become virtuous by imitation. However,
in classical theory imitation is a far cry from mere
aping. When we learn by imitation, or mimesis, we
experience four stages:
-
Perception of the idea through
the senses (i.e. hearing or seeing beauty in a great
work of art)
-
Absorption of the idea into the
soul through the "common sense." The common sense is
where the physical senses meet the soul - it puts
all the other senses together to identify the thing
perceived as, say, a work of art instead of merely
the lines, colors, etc that the senses perceive
individually).
-
Apprehension of the idea with
the mind, or understanding. How well this is done
depends largely on how well the idea was absorbed
into the soul, which depends in turn on how well the
observer perceived the idea, all of which depends on
the observes attentiveness).
-
Re-presentation of the idea in
the students own manner. Here the student incarnates
the idea in a new form. He might, for example,
perceive justice in the way a teacher treats a
student and then apply the principle of justice in
the way he treats his sister.
Mimesis is an imitation, not of the
outward form, but of the inner idea - not ultimately of
an action, but of the idea expressed in that action.
Every art and skill is mastered through these stages,
whether in school or out.
It is a modified inductive form of instruction in which
students are led to understand ideas by contemplating
models or types of them. These models can be found in literature,
history, mathematics, the fine arts, music, other human arts and
activities, and nature.
When the teacher practices Mimetic
(Didactic) instruction, she naturally
progresses through five stages:
- Preparation
(raising to the students awareness what he already
knows about the lesson)
- Presentation of types
- Comparison of types
- Understanding and expression
of the idea
-
Application of the idea
This chart shows the role of the student
and of the teacher in the act of Mimesis.
|
The student |
The teacher |
| Allows the teacher to arouse his attention |
Prepares the student to receive
the idea |
| Perceives, with the senses, the idea
embodied in types |
Presents a type of the idea to
the students senses |
| Absorbs the types into his soul |
Leads the student to compare
types of the idea |
| Apprehends the idea |
Ensures apprehension through
sufficient comparison |
| Re-presents the idea verbally |
Asks the student to express the
idea verbally |
| Re-presents the idea in another form |
Instructs the student to apply
the idea in a different context |
Mimetic (Didactic) instruction is rooted in the idea that
humans can only learn by moving from the particular
(specific, concrete things) to the universal (general,
abstract ideas). Since this is so, it is best to teach
people "with the grain" as Dorothy Sayers expressed it.
To discuss Mimetic (Didactic) instruction on
the CiRCE forum, click
here.
To learn how to implement Mimetic instruction in your
school through CiRCE Institute teacher training, please
click
HERE or give us a call at (704) 786-9684.
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Socratic Instruction
is the dialectical process of examining an idea by
“deconstructing” it to find weaknesses and
inconsistencies in one's understanding, and then
“reconstructing” it to clarify or purify one's
understanding.
These two stages are accomplished
by engaging in reflective discussion (dialectics) with
the student who holds an idea, not to destroy, but to
purge, his understanding. This reflective
discussion is accomplished through the use of
penetrating questions by the leader.
The first stage of Socratic
instruction is called the "Ironic" stage because it is
attempting to gently reveal the errors contained in the
participants understanding of the idea (for example, he
might conclude that Achilles was a sissy for crying to
him mommy. The teacher would not correct him by telling
him the truth about Achilles, but would guide the
student to reflect on his assumptions by asking him
questions).
The second stage of Socratic
instruction is called the "Maieutic" stage because in it
the teacher attempts to "midwife" the birth of an idea
in the students mind (maieutic means mid-wife). This
stage can only begin when the student acknowledges his
error in the first stage (metanoia - repentence). At
that point, the teacher can continue to ask questions,
guiding the student to see the truth he thought he knew
earlier.
The clearest instance of this
process in the Platonic corpus is found in the Meno,
in which Socrates teachers geometry to a slave boy. We
highly recommend a close analysis of that short exchange
to the teacher who wishes to teach Socratically. Both teacher and student move
closer to an accurate understanding of an idea through
this process.
Socratic instruction is rooted in
the idea that "truth is" and that it is knowable, but
that we are careless about how we go about knowing it.
We draw conclusions too hastily and then apply them too
widely. To mature in our reasoning, we must purify our
thinking through a critical Socratic dialectic.
To discuss
Socratic instruction on the CiRCE forum, click
here.
To learn how to implement Socratic instruction
through CiRCE Institute teacher training, please click
HERE or give us a call at (704) 786-9684.
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