Trivium

<p>The <b>Trivium</b> is a systematic method of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking" title="Critical thinking">critical thinking</a> used to derive factual certainty from information perceived with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense#Traditional_senses" title="Sense">traditional five senses</a>: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university" title="Medieval university">medieval university</a>, the <b>trivium</b> was the lower division of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_liberal_arts" class="mw-redirect" title="Seven liberal arts">seven liberal arts</a>, and comprised <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar" title="Grammar">grammar</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic" title="Logic">logic</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric" title="Rhetoric">rhetoric</a> (input, process, and output).<sup id="cite_ref-english-ety_1-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium#cite_note-english-ety-1">[1]</a></sup>

Etymologically, the Latin word <b>trivium</b> means "the place where three roads meet" (tri + via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrivium" title="Quadrivium">quadrivium</a>, the upper division of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages" title="Middle Ages">medieval</a> education in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts" class="mw-redirect" title="Liberal arts">liberal arts</a>, which comprised <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic" title="Arithmetic">arithmetic</a> (number), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry" title="Geometry">geometry</a> (number in space), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music" title="Music">music</a> (number in time), and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy" title="Astronomy">astronomy</a> (number in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_antiquity" title="Classical antiquity">classical antiquity</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-english-ety_1-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium#cite_note-english-ety-1">[1]</a></sup>

The trivium is implicit in the <i>De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii</i> ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury"), by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martianus_Capella" title="Martianus Capella">Martianus Capella</a>, although the term was not used until the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_Renaissance" title="Carolingian Renaissance">Carolingian Renaissance</a>, when the term was coined, in imitation of the earlier <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrivium" title="Quadrivium">quadrivium</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were essential to a classical education, as explained in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato" title="Plato">Plato</a>'s dialogues. Together, the three subjects were included to and denoted by the word "trivium" during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages" title="Middle Ages">Middle Ages</a>, but the tradition of first learning those three subjects was established in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_ancient_Greece" title="Education in ancient Greece">ancient Greece</a>. Contemporary iterations have taken various forms, including those found in certain British and American universities (some being part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_education_movement" title="Classical education movement">Classical education movement</a>).

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<h2>Description</h2>

<p><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar" title="Grammar">Grammar</a></b> teaches the mechanics of language to the student. This is the step where the student "comes to terms", i.e. defining the objects and information perceived by the five senses. Hence, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Identity" class="mw-redirect" title="Law of Identity">Law of Identity</a>: <i>a tree is a tree, and not a cat</i>.

<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic" title="Logic">Logic</a></b> (also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic" title="Dialectic">dialectic</a>) is the "mechanics" of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought" title="Thought">thought</a> and of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis" title="Analysis">analysis</a>; the process of identifying <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy" title="Fallacy">fallacious arguments</a> and statements, and so systematically removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge that can be trusted.

<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric" title="Rhetoric">Rhetoric</a></b> is the application of language in order to instruct and to persuade the listener and the reader. It is the knowledge (grammar) now understood (logic) being transmitted outwards, as wisdom (rhetoric).

In <i>The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric</i> (2002), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Miriam_Joseph" title="Sister Miriam Joseph">Sister Miriam Joseph</a> thus described the Trivium:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Grammar is the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; logic is the art of thinking; and rhetoric is the art of communicating thought from one mind to another; the adaptation of language to circumstance.

<b>. . .</b></p>

Grammar is concerned with the thing as-it-is-symbolized. Logic is concerned with the thing as-it-is-known. Rhetoric is concerned with the thing as-it-is-communicated.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup></blockquote>

<p>In the <i>Dictionary of Word Origins</i> (1990), John Ayto said that study of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) was requisite preparation for study of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). For the medieval student, the trivium was the curricular beginning of the acquisition of the seven <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts" class="mw-redirect" title="Liberal arts">liberal arts</a>; as such, it was the principal undergraduate course of study. From that contrast, between the simpler trivium and the difficult quadrivium, arose the word <i><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trivial" class="extiw" title="wikt:trivial">trivial</a></i>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup></p>

<h2>See also</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrivium" title="Quadrivium">Quadrivium</a></li>

<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_three_Rs" title="The three Rs">The three Rs</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>References</h2>

<ol class="references">

<li id="cite_note-english-ety-1"></li>

</ol>

<ul>

<li id="cite_note-english-ety-1"><cite class="citation book">C.T. Onions, ed. (1991). <i>The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology</i>. p.&nbsp;944.</cite></li>

<li id="cite_note-2"></li>

<li id="cite_note-2">Henri-Irénée Marrou, "Les arts libéraux dans l'Antiquité classique", pp. 6–27 in <i>Arts libéraux et philosophie au Moyen Âge</i>, (Paris: Vrin / Montréal: Institut d'études médiévales), 1969, pp. 18–9.</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"></li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><cite class="citation book">Joseph, Sister Miriam (2002). "<b>1</b> The Liberal Arts". <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/?id=lg0a-RJcn4gC&pg=PA3"><i>The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric</i></a>. Paul Dry Books, Inc. pp.&nbsp;3 and 9.</cite></li>

<li id="cite_note-4"></li>

<li >

<div class="reflist columns references-column-count references-column-count-2" >

<ol class="references">

<li value="4" id="cite_note-4"><cite class="citation book">Ayto, John (1990). <i>Dictionary of Word Origins</i>. University of Texas Press. p.&nbsp;542. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-55970-214-1" title="Special:BookSources/1-55970-214-1">1-55970-214-1</a>.</cite></li>

</ol>

</div>

<h2>Further reading</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLuhan,_Marshall" class="mw-redirect" title="McLuhan, Marshall">McLuhan, Marshall</a> (2006) <i>The Classical Trivium: The Place of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nashe" title="Thomas Nashe">Thomas Nashe</a> in the Learning of His Time</i> (McLuhan's 1942 doctoral dissertation); Gingko Press <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1584230673" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn">ISBN 1-58423-067-3</a>.</li>

<li>Robinson, Martin. (2013) <i>Trivium 21c: Preparing Young People for the Future with Lessons From the Past</i> London: Independent Thinking Press. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781781350546" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn">ISBN 978-178135054-6</a></li>

<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_L._Sayers" title="Dorothy L. Sayers">Sayers, Dorothy L.</a>, (1947) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html">"The Lost Tools of Learning"</a>, an essay presented at Oxford University.</li>

<li>Winterer, Caroline. (2002) <i>The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780–1910</i> Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

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