LIBERAL ARTS

The term 'liberal arts' refers to a particular type of educational curriculum broadly defined as a classical education.

Contents

History

Definition

Artes Liberales

Liberal arts colleges

References

Further reading

See also

External links

History

Definition

The term "liberal arts" is defined by the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Concise'' as a, "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. In Classical antiquity, the term designated the education proper to a freeman (Latin liber, “free”) as opposed to a slave. In the medieval Western university, the seven liberal arts were grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the trivium) and geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy (the quadrivium).
In modern colleges and universities, the liberal arts include the study of theology, literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science.^[1]

Artes Liberales

Artes Liberales^[2] was the medieval and earlier nomenclature for the ''Trivium and Quadrivium'' (''artes triviales'' and ''artes quadriviales''), the education and training deemed suitable for free persons (Latin ''liber'': free), as distinct from the ''artes illiberales'' for the less (or not) free, now broadly termed vocational education.
'The Trivium, the artes sermocinales:'

★ Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic (language, oratory, logic)
'The Quadrivium, the artes reales or physicæ:'

★ Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music

Liberal arts colleges

Main articles: Liberal arts college


★ Main articles: Liberal arts colleges in the United States

Liberal arts colleges are institutions which place a particular emphasis upon undergraduate study in the liberal arts. Generally, a full-time, four-year course of study at a liberal arts college leads students to a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. Liberal arts colleges have traditionally emphasized interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions) and are known for being residential. They typically have a smaller enrollment, class size, and lower teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges also encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student TAs (who teach the classes at Research I and other universities). Although the genesis for what is known today as the liberal arts college began in Europe, ^[3] the term is commonly associated with liberal arts colleges in the United States. Liberal arts colleges are found in countries all over the world as well.
Following completion of their undergraduate studies at liberal arts colleges, students often continue to graduate study in other institutions, such as professional schools (for instance, in business, law, medicine, or theology) or graduate schools.

References

1. Liberal Arts: Encyclopedia Britannica Concise
2. The Seven Liberal Arts in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
3. Antecedents of the Liberal Arts College

Further reading

★ Blaich, Charles, Anne Bost, Ed Chan, and Richard Lynch. ''Defining Liberal Arts Education''. Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, 2004.

★ Blanshard, Brand. ''The Uses of a Liberal Education: And Other Talks to Students''. (Open Court, 1973. ISBN 0-8126-9429-5)

★ Friedlander, Jack. ''Measuring the Benefits of Liberal Arts Education in Washington's Community Colleges''. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Community Colleges, 1982a. (ED 217 918)

★ Joseph, Sister Miriam. ''The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric''. Paul Dry Books Inc, 2002.

★ Pfnister, Allen O. "The Role of the Liberal Arts College." ''The Journal of Higher Education.'' Vol. 55, No. 2 (March/April 1984): 145-170.

★ Reeves, Floyd W. "The Liberal-Arts College." ''The Journal of Higher Education.'' Vol. 1, No. 7 (1930): 373-380.

★ Seidel, George. "Saving the Small College." ''The Journal of Higher Education.'' Vol. 39, No. 6 (1968): 339-342.

★ Winterer, Caroline.''The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

★ Wriston, Henry M. ''The Nature of a Liberal College''. Lawrence University Press, 1937.

See also

★ Great Books

★ Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

★ Doctor Liberalium Artium

★ Renaissance Humanism

External links

★ The Seven Liberal Arts, Catholic Encyclopedia

★ Philosophy of Liberal Education

★ Liberal Arts at the Community College

★ A Descriptive Analysis of the Community College Liberal Arts Curriculum

★ The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts

★ Academic Commons

★ CatholiCity: Catholic Encyclopedia

★ CollegeNews.org: News from America's Leading Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities