A Liberal Arts Course Trivia Quiz

Answer:

A liberal arts course is still seen by many as providing an education that equips one to think and learn throughout life, and hence intrinsically valuable even though it does not provide explicit preparation for any career. Arts here refers to any skill acquired by study and learning, not just to the fine arts (creative arts such as painting, performing arts such as music) most people associate with the term. A Bachelor of Arts degree may be based on studies in any of a number of fields - I personally have a BA with a major in Physics, half of my study having been undertaken in areas outside of science and mathematics, to provide a broad-based learning experience. This modern understanding of the liberal arts sees a number of disciplines offered, often grouped into faculties as described in the question. But its emphasis on breadth is rooted in antiquity, even if the explicit nomenclature has changed.

Most people associate Pythagoras of Samos with his famous triangle theorem (which he did not actually develop, but that's another story), but he was an important educator, establishing a school of inquiry which strongly influenced the philosophies of such people as Plato and Aristotle. He is said to have identified the four mathematical arts that came to be called (by the Latin polymath Boetius) the Quadrivium, the four-way road that forms the basis for philosophy and theology. Arithmetic is the study of the abstract properties of number, geometry considers spatial applications of number, music can be analysed as number patterns in time and astronomy combines number, space and time.

The Trivium (three roads) is considered the lower level of liberal arts, those that need to be mastered before progressing to the higher demands of the Quadrivium. First and most fundamental is grammar, the study of the mechanics of language - how words come to have meaning, and how they are put together in communication. Logic investigates thought processes, the construction and recognition of sound arguments and refutation of fallacy. Rhetoric then uses language to persuade and inform, drawing on grammar and logic to work towards wisdom, the recognition of what is most probably true in circumstances where logic cannot lead to certainty.