The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric Paperback - 2002

An essential book to develop mastery in reading, writing, speaking, and intellectual reasoning

In Plato's Republic Socrates proposes a course of study that may be the original presentation of the idea of the "Liberal Arts." These "arts" are divided into two groups of learning: the Quadrivium (number, geometry, music, and astronomy) and the Trivium (logic, grammar, and rhetoric). The study of the Trivium develops mastery in reading, writing, speaking, and intellectual reasoning.

The Trivium is key to a classical education

"Trivium" means the crossroads where the three branches of language meet. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, students studied and mastered this integrated view of language. Regrettably, modern language teaching keeps the parts without the vision of the whole. In the 1940s, Sister Miriam Joseph at Saint Mary's College rescued that integrated approach with The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric. The Paul Dry Books edition provides new graphics and notes to make the book accessible to today's readers.

* The nature and function of language
* General grammar
* Logic and reasoning: propositions, syllogisms, and fallacies
* Induction and scientific method
* Rhetoric and communication: poetics, figurative language, metrical discourse
* Enlivened by examples: from Shakespeare, Milton, Plato, the Bible, Homer, and other great writers

A perfect book for teachers, students, writers, lawyers, and all serious users of language. The Trivium invites the reader into a deeper understanding, one that includes rules, definitions, and guidelines, but whose ultimate end is to transform the reader into a liberal artist.

"Is the trivium, then, a sufficient education for life? Properly taught, I believe that it should be."
--Dorothy L. Sayers

"Whoever owns this book owns a treasure."
--Eva Brann