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The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric
Who sets language policy today? Who made whom the grammar doctor? Lacking the equivalent of l'Acadaise, we English speakers must find our own way looking for guidance or vindication in source after source. McGuffey's Readers introduced nineteenth-century students to "correct" English. Strunk and White's Elements of Style and William Safire's column, "On Lang...more
Paperback, 292 pages
Published
May 1st 2002
by Paul Dry Books
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This book teaches two lessons: first, the humanities can, and should, have rigor associated with them; and second, it teaches how to obtain and apply that rigor. While the book requires some effort to read, for those interested in logic, grammar, rhetoric, and the liberall arts, the effort is richly rewarded.
The book opens with a dicssuon on the liberal arts and then moves to a discussion of the science of grammar. This grammar is not about subject-verb agreement and punctuation, it...more
The book opens with a dicssuon on the liberal arts and then moves to a discussion of the science of grammar. This grammar is not about subject-verb agreement and punctuation, it...more
If you can master this book it is worth more than any college education money can buy. The only reason this doesn't get five stars is because it's a bit on the difficult side. There are other books on the trivium that may be a bit easier to start with but this book has everything plus wonderful examples from the Bible to Shakespeare. After mastering this book you will easily distinguish truth from error. The trivium was how educated people from the classical age up through the 19th century. Wit...more
OK, this book may not be an 'easy read' and may not be everyone's cup of tea. Not a beach book.
Having noted the above, I want to add that anyone who is interested in logic, grammar, and how the two connect will find this book illuminating. Sister Miriam was a wonderful teacher, and this book is still sometimes used in college undergraduate classes to explain how Aristotelian logic works and how logic relates to rhetoric, grammar, argument.
She's remarkably clear. Her langu...more
Having noted the above, I want to add that anyone who is interested in logic, grammar, and how the two connect will find this book illuminating. Sister Miriam was a wonderful teacher, and this book is still sometimes used in college undergraduate classes to explain how Aristotelian logic works and how logic relates to rhetoric, grammar, argument.
She's remarkably clear. Her langu...more
Paula
rated it
Recommends it for:
Serious Learners
Recommended to Paula by:
PIG English & American Lit
I should preface this by saying that this is a textbook, used in the author's Freshman English classes. Yet, hers was never typical of such classes. She did not just teach the students a little grammar, she taught them how to think. I can imagine her classes must have been one of those grueling, interminable ordeals that students so love to bemoan while in the midst of it, but that they boast about after the fact. She studied under Mortimer J. Adler, so it comes as no surprise that she is well v...more
This book more than any other reset my course and gave me the foundation I have long sought in order to learn everything else. It is less about her subjects, grammar, logic and rhetoric than a course in critical thinking. I am a lifelong fan of logic and reason and I had a pretty good grasp of that. But Sister Miriam's teaching enlightened me. I can now use it with more precision and express and persuade others more easily due to that precision. God Bless Sister Miriam.
An interesting read for anyone interested in the nature and function of language and its role in education. Not always grabbing. Written in 1937 by a nun with a PH.d - double trouble. As someone without the greatest grasp of language and grammar (I'm a grammar-phobe) - the thought of diagramming a sentence still sends me into cold sweats) I hope this book will broaden my understanding of those two fields. Additionally, I hope Sister Joseph will further my understanding of the role of l...more
Like several others I had thought this book was an actual study of the medieval modes of knowledge and teaching.
It is not, it is based on the actual course that was taught by Sister Miriam Joseph at the various colleges she was a member of in the 1930s onwards.
As a refresher of basic priciples it should serve as very useful: how errors creep in through use and overuse (- is this entropy? It is the idea behind the 3 Matrix films: Neo was part of the pattern for eradicating rogue...more
It is not, it is based on the actual course that was taught by Sister Miriam Joseph at the various colleges she was a member of in the 1930s onwards.
As a refresher of basic priciples it should serve as very useful: how errors creep in through use and overuse (- is this entropy? It is the idea behind the 3 Matrix films: Neo was part of the pattern for eradicating rogue...more
The grammar and logic sections were revelatory but I found the rhetoric section a bit lacking in comparison, especially since now I'm reading Aristotle's "Rhetoric" which goes into much more detail and picks apart the subject with finer nuance.
Difficult to follow, but very good information about classical teaching.
Tim
is currently reading it
Thanks to Sary - Happy Bday! So far it's a luscious romp through those tantalizing and titillating old liberal arts of logic, grammar and rhetoric, compliments of Sister Miriam Joseph. Exquisitely crafted and thoroughly Aristotelian (a mixed blessing for a Platonist, although I’ve always admired him for developing formal logic, and there’s something to be said for all-encompassing and uncompromisingly systematic systematizing).
Brian
marked it as to-read
Not the book that I thought it would be. I was looking for a history of the trivium as an approach to learning but instead this is a textbook on the three topics. Useful, for sure, but my fault for not researching this book better.
Ultimately, I thought this was a very fine book. Eminently worth the while of anyone who wishes th have a thorough understanding, and appreciation, of the Liberal Arts.
Great mental exercise. Makes clear the relationships between what we say, what we mean to say, and where they come together or fall apart.
Colin
rated it
There is a part of me that truly wishes that a book like this could become THE primary textbook for all schools in the United States.
My mind benefited more from this book than from all my years in public schools ... but does this really surprise anyone?
THE BEST educational plan EVER.
1 smart nun.
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