Liberal arts

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The seven liberal arts – Picture from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad von Landsberg (12th century)

The term liberal arts came to mean studies that are intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills, rather than more specialized occupational, scientific, or artistic skills.

In the history of education, the seven liberal arts comprised two groups of studies: the trivium and the quadrivium. Studies in the trivium involved grammar, dialectic (logic), and rhetoric; and studies in the quadrivium involved arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. These liberal arts made up the core curriculum of the medieval universities. The term liberal in liberal arts is from the Latin word liberalis, meaning "appropriate for free men" (social and political elites), and they were contrasted with the servile arts. The liberal arts thus initially represented the kinds of skills and general knowledge needed by the elite echelon of society, whereas the servile arts represented specialized tradesman skills and knowledge needed by persons who were employed by the elite.

The scope of the liberal arts has changed with society. It once emphasised the education of elites in the classics; but, with the rise of other humanities during the Age of Enlightenment, the scope and meaning of "liberal arts" expanded to include them. Excluded from the traditional liberal arts are topics such as theatre, painting, fashion design, women's studies, gender studies, pedagogy, journalism, business, physics (as separate from astronomy), chemistry, biology, geology, agriculture, medicine, physiology, dentistry, pharmacology, engineering, computer science.

In the United States, liberal arts colleges are still a particular kind of higher education institution that are typified by their rejection of more direct vocational education during undergraduate studies. Students at these schools typically have to take a set of general education requirements including natural science, social science, history, writing/literature, math, and art/music.^{[citation needed]} Following completion of their undergraduate studies at liberal arts colleges, graduates often do obtain specialized training by going to other institutions, such as professional schools (for instance, in business, law, medicine, or theology) or graduate schools.

In modern academia, the Arts are usually grouped with or a subset of the Humanities. Some subjects in the Humanities are history, linguistics, literature, and philosophy.

Institutions outside the United States that have been inspired by U.S. liberal-arts colleges include International Christian University, which was established after World War II as the first American-style college in Japan, the European College of Liberal Arts in Germany, in the Netherlands three liberal arts colleges have been founded over the last decade, and Ashesi University in Ghana. This category of higher education does not exist in the United Kingdom, and the term "liberal arts" is very little used in any contemporary context in the UK.

While the concept is rarely expressed in Australia, it is presently becoming more influential in Melbourne. In that city, Victoria University now offers a two year "Diploma of Liberal Arts". Additionally, the University of Melbourne is becoming a US style graduate school, offering generalist undergraduate degrees similar to a liberal arts degree in the US.

[edit] See also

The Arts
Dante's Divine Comedy and Convivio where he drew a connection between the liberal arts and the seven astrological planets.
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

[edit] Further reading

Charles Blaich, Anne Bost, Ed Chan, and Richard Lynch. Defining Liberal Arts Education. Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, 2004.
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)
Blanshard, Brand. The Uses of a Liberal Education: And Other Talks to Students. (Open Court, 1973. ISBN 0-8126-9429-5)
Wriston, Hénry M. The Nature of a Liberal College. Lawrence University Press, 1937.
Joseph, Sister Miriam. The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric. Paul Dry Books Inc, 2002.
Winterer, Caroline. "The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910." Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.