Thursday 9 December 2010

Celebrating the trivial.

'Trivial' is derived from the trivium

Mediaeval education, following later Roman practice, centred on the seven liberal arts, which comprised three basic subjects, Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic, which were known as the trivium, and the four mathematical studies recommenced by Plato, Number, Geometry, Astronomy and Harmony, which were called the quadrivium.

'Dialectic' meant what we should call 'Logic', an important subject which most people find very difficult, so it's a pity that 'trivial' is used as a term of abuse. I may try to rehabilitate it.

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