Thetrivium is the lower division of theseven liberal arts and comprisesgrammar,logic, andrhetoric.[1]
The trivium is implicit inDe nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury") byMartianus Capella, but the term was not used until theCarolingian Renaissance, when it was coined in imitation of the earlierquadrivium.[2] Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were essential to a classical education, as explained inPlato's dialogues. The three subjects together were denoted by the wordtrivium during theMiddle Ages, but the tradition of first learning those three subjects was established inancient Greece, by rhetoricians such asIsocrates.[3]: 12–23 Contemporary iterations have taken various forms, including those found in certain British and American universities (some being part of theClassical education movement) and at the independentOundle School in theUnited Kingdom.[4]
Etymologically, the Latin wordtrivium means "the place where three roads meet" (tri +via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for thequadrivium, the upper (or "further") division of themedieval education in theliberal arts, which consists ofarithmetic (numbers as abstract concepts),geometry (numbers in space),music (numbers in time), andastronomy (numbers in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts ofclassical antiquity.[1]
Grammar teaches the mechanics of language to the student. This is the step where the student "comes to terms", defining the objects and information perceived by the five senses. Hence, thelaw of identity:a tree is a tree, and not a cat.
Logic (alsodialectic) is the "mechanics" ofthought and ofanalysis, the process of composing sound arguments and identifyingfallacious arguments and statements, and so systematically removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge that can be trusted. Its aim is to calculate what is certainly true or false.
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Rhetoric 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) and being transmitted outwards as wisdom (rhetoric). Its aim is to identify what is most probably true or false where logical certainty is not possible.[5]
Aristotle defined rhetoric as "the power of perceiving in every thing that which is capable of producing persuasion".[6]
Sister Miriam Joseph, inThe Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric (2002), described the trivium as follows:[7]
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.
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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.
John Ayto wrote in theDictionary of Word Origins (1990) 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 sevenliberal arts; as such, it was the principal undergraduate course of study. The wordtrivial arose from the contrast between the simpler trivium and the more difficult quadrivium.[8]
