Sister Miriam Joseph’s book, The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, invites the reader into a deeper understanding of language–one that includes rules, definitions, and guidelines, but whose ultimate end is to transform the reader into a liberal artist. A liberal artist seeks the perfection of the human faculties. The liberal artist begins with the language arts, the trivium, which is the basis of all learning because it teaches the tools for reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Thinking underlies all these activities. Many readers will recognize elements of this book: parts of speech, syntax, propositions, syllogisms, enthymemes, logical fallacies, scientific method, figures of speech, rhetorical technique, and poetics. The Trivium, however, presents these elements within a philosophy of language that connects thought, expression, and reality. Trivium means the crossroads where the three branches of language meet. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, students studied and mastered this integrated view of language. Regrettably, modern language teaching keeps the parts without the vision of the whole. Inspired by the possibility of helping students acquire mastery over the tools of learning Sister Miriam Joseph and other teachers at Saint Mary’s College designed and taught a course on the trivium for all first year students. The Trivium resulted from that noble endeavor. Ultimately, Sister Miriam Joseph herself speaks the most eloquently about the value of this book. She explains that studying the liberal arts is an intransitive activity; the effect of studying these arts stays within the individual and perfects the faculties of the mind and spirit. She compares the studying of the liberal arts with the blooming of the rose; it brings to fruition the possibilities of human nature. She writes, “The utilitarian or servile arts enable one to be a servant–of another person, of the state, of a corporation, or of a business–and to earn a living. The liberal arts, in contrast, teach one how to live; they train the faculties and bring them to perfection; they enable a person to rise above his material environment to live an intellectual, a rational, and therefore a free life in gaining truth.”

The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric PDF

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