7 Liberal Arts

Grammar, rhetoric, and logic were the core liberal arts, while arithmetic, geometry, the theory of music, and astronomy also played a (somewhat lesser) part in education.^[2]

Grammar is the mechanics of a language (always Latin, at the time);

logic (or dialectic) is the "mechanics" of thought and analysis;

rhetoric is the use of language to instruct and persuade.

Sister Miriam Joseph described the three parts of the Trivium thus:

Grammar is the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought;

logic is the art of thinking;

and rhetoric, the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance.

Another description is:

Grammar is concerned with the thing as-it-is-symbolized,

Logic is concerned with the thing as-it-is-known, and

Rhetoric is concerned with the thing as-it-is-communicated.