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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.042
EAN num: 9780967967509
ISBN number: 0967967503
Label: Paul Dry Books
Manufacturer: Paul Dry Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 292
Printing Date: May 01, 2002
Publishing house: Paul Dry Books
Sale Popularity Level: 32380
Studio: Paul Dry Books
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Product Description:
Opening the door for beginners who seek a thorough grounding in the very first arts of human understanding, this book explains the nature of logic, grammar, and rhetoric-the three of the seven liberal arts-and how they relate to one another. In Renaissance universities, the trivium (literally, the crossing of three part way) formed the essence of the liberal arts curriculum. Examined are topics such as the nature and function of language, distinguishing general grammar from special grammar, the study of logic and its relationship to grammar and rhetoric, and applying the concepts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric to literary works.
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Rated by buyers 
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Eva Brauns said that "whoever owns this books owns a treasure;" I agree.
Sister Miriam Joseph makes a distinction between the liberal arts, which teach one how to live and allow a human to rise above his or her material environment, and the utilitarian (or servile) arts, which allow one to earn a living.
The liberal arts exist to discipline the mind and perfect the intellect, allowing a person to sort fact from fiction, and conforming his or her mind with truth. This is (or rather, SHOULD BE) the aim of education (and by extension, philosophy). Regrettably, this is not the case.
If high school students studied this book carefully prior to entering college, they would be prepared to tackle any challenge: the study of mathematics, physics, chemistry, philosophy, among other subjects, would be more enjoyable and less burdensome when studied on a firm foundation in the liberal arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric.
BTW, there is no requirement that you be Catholic or any sort of Christian to study this book. I am an agnostic, and wouldn't think twice about recommending it.
Rated by buyers -
I reviewed the book, and look forward to reading it. The novel premise of this book intrigues me. It promises to be both definitive and interesting.
Rated by buyers -
This excellent work is certainly a challenge, even for someone, like myself, who studied philosophy in college. It is, however, worth the effort. Combining the original 60-year old text with the deft editing (and entirely new material, particularly in the thought-experiment examples) by Marguerite McGlinn, this is a timeless work now available and accessible to new generations of readers.
on a personal note, editor Mrs. McGlinn passed away last week after battling pancreatic cancer. if you love this book as I do, it would be wonderful to honor her memory by donating to research into this terrible disease:
Marguerite Mulligan McGlinn memorial pancreas cancer research fund
c/o Dan Laheru MD
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center
The Sidney Kimmel Compreshensive Cancer Center
Bunting-Blaustein CRB Room G89
1650 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21231
Rated by buyers -
This is one of my FAVOURITE books indeed. A wonderful and inviting summary of the Classical Education system known as the Trivium, you become aware of your own weaknesses as far as possessing the tools for advanced learning in the most scholarly fiends of learning.
Every single household should possess a copy of this book. Thank you so much for publishing with work.
Rated by buyers 
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The Trivium is one of those impenetrable books that one hesitates to condemn, because one suspects that to do so is to make a fool of oneself. Nevertheless I feel that it may be useful to provide a counterpoint to the nearly universally glowing reviews this book has attracted.
Reading The Trivium is an exercise in adversity. Sister Miriam lays down statement after rule after axiom, one after another, like dealing cards, often without support. As a reader you can accept each assertion and continue, or you can consider each postulate critically. I tried the former course for a time, but this caused me to glance off the surface of following material. When I resorted to critical thinking, I fell quickly into a struggle for dominance with the Sister, and bogged down. This book may have some value providing a certain historical insight, but I can't see how anyone with a recent education would approach it hoping to improve his grasp on any of grammar, logic, or rhetoric.
Vocabulary
I approached this difficult book by beginning with Chapter 3, why not? Immediately I realized this approach would fail. The Trivium introduces vocabulary, and unusual meanings for words I thought I already knew. While reading it from the middle, I was never quite certain whether I had understood a given statement, or not at all. Yet to begin at the beginning is to be treated little better.
This reviewer is passing familiar with Greek philosophy, though he is no academic. From other reviews I had expected The Trivium to present, well, the subjects of Alcuin's venerable Trivium in a useful way, with a rigorous, old school flavor that classical Greeks might have recognized. With regard to the flavor, I am accustomed to professors approaching such material with a touch of equivocation. You know: "Empedocles is thought to have originated the concept that all matter is composed of the canonical four elements. I'm sure this was very clever in his day, but you should know that our current models are rather more successful." I noticed no such restraint in this book. To be fair, I penetrated only some twenty pages but please, from that short introduction alone I have cause for much dissatisfaction.
Even when properly approached from the beginning, this book is a series of confrontations with unusual uses of recognizable words, frequently followed by opportunities through continued use to hone what one might take to be their meaning in the given context. It's an interesting way to introduce terminology, but unnecessarily difficult, I think. Do these words represent Greek concepts? English words are being tortured into service to describe something, whatever its origin. Are these standard translations of Greek terms? I think that they are not, and in any case I have been led to believe that there is seldom an easy one-to-one correspondence between the vocabulary of Greek philosophy and that of modern English. None of this is evident from the content of (the beginning of) this book. I would like to be treated more gently!
Argument
I have other complaints about Sister Miriam's book. One is the ease with which its author reels off questionable claims as if they were unimpeachable. A very typical example of my own struggle with this material may be elucidating. The Trivium opens chapter 2 with stock brazenness:
"The function of language is threefold: to communicate thought, volition, and emotion."
Alright. That's pretty blanket. Is it meant to be taken literally? Is it some classical Greek assertion with which I am unfamiliar, submitted for my amusement? If it is, shouldn't it be identified as such? If not, is it necessarily true? Where are we going with this? Should I just accept it and continue? No, no, I should drop anchor for a moment, and consider ramifications... Very well. The statement feels flawed, but I must admit I can't categorically countermand it with any certainty. However for myself I believe I would not have broken it down quite that way, and I'm not sure that to do so gives us any useful organization. I would expect such a decree to be followed by a citation, or by an authoritative justification. Yet while I've been dallying, the Sister has forged ahead and built on the statement, without giving what I would consider a reason to accept the foundation of her subsequent arguments.
The book appears to be thickly strewn with such curious traps, so expect to spend five unpleasantly thought-provoking minutes reading each page. Struggling with the book feels like playing a card game with the author, and she has all the trumps. Well, not all the trumps. It feels like she thinks she has all the trumps, correspondingly claims each trick played, and brooks no argument about her interpretation of the rules. The game is a variant of Bridge, in case you don't play, but you get my point.
Another example from the ... Read More
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