Philosophy and the Liberal Arts

Philosophy and the Liberal Arts

• Philosophy and the Liberal Arts is from the Hortus Deliciarum, perhaps the most iconic image of liberal arts education.

• Created by Herod of Landsberg and a community of women in the Vosges Mountains around the 12th century.

• The article "Liberal Arts Education by and for Women" focuses on Herod and the inner circle of the image, which centers on philosophy.

• This article focuses on the seven liberal arts, septem artes liberales, that surround philosophy.

The Seven Liberal Arts

• Around the queen philosophy, under round arches separated by columns, are the seven liberal arts.

• Straub and Keller (1977) note that these arts are "ever at philosophy's orders" in directing the trivium and quadrivium.

• The circular inscription framing philosophy states: "I, the divine philosophy, govern all things wisely. I lay out seven arts which are subordinate to me."

Grammar

• At the top of the rose, grammar wears red with a white veil.

• The rod symbolizes strict discipline.

• She carries a book decorated with jewels.

• Inscription: Vox, litera, syllaboquid sit. (Through me, all can learn the meaning of words, syllables, and letters.)

Rhetoric

• Next to grammar, rhetoric holds a stylus and wax-coated tablets.

• Illustrates the care required in preparing speeches with attention to detail and revisions.

• Requires, thanks to me, proud speaker. Your speeches will move.

Dialectic

• Engaged in a lively exchange.

• A barking dog symbolizes the energy and vigilance required in debate.

• Like the barks of a dog, my arguments follow each other with speed.

Music

• Playing a heart-shaped instrument called a sithra.

• Surrounded by instruments, including a hand organ (organistrum) and a lira.

• Music some late doctrix artists variate. (I am music, and I teach my art with the help of various instruments.)

Arithmetic

• Counts on a knotted robe.

• Ex numeros con sto, quorum discrimina monstro. (I have faith in numbers, and I show how they are related to each other.)

Geometry

• Stands with a compass (circulars) on the ground.

• Holds a yardstick or surveying rod.

• The art of measuring the world at rest.

• Teri menturus promultis de rigo curus. (With precision, I measure the Earth.)

Astronomy

• Looks towards the cosmos to study the stars.

• Holds a magnifying lens or water-filled casing to reflect the night sky.

• I owe my name to the celestial bodies, and I predict the future.

Aphorisms Encircling the Liberal Arts

• Plus Hekke exorcische kvendi philosofia in vistigavid, in vistigata nativit, scripto firmavid et alvenis, and sinvavid.

• What it discovers is remembered.

• Philosophy investigates the secrets of the elements and all things.

• Philosophy teaches arts by seven branches.

• It puts it in writing to convey it to the students.

Philosophy and Lying Fictions

• Outside the circle of philosophy and the seven liberal arts are poets, mages, or magicians.

• They are writing words beyond the influence of philosophy.

• Herod, echoing Plato, regards their work as dangerous, frivolous, and impure.

• Inscriptions: The poets and magicians who are moved by the impure spirit. Those moved by impure spirits teach magic and write poems, that is lying fictions.

Language and Number

• The seven liberal arts were the form and content for much liberal arts education through the Middle Ages.

• Origins traced back to Plato's academy.

• Many medieval manuscripts document the Septimartes Liberales.

• The distinction between the language arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) and the number arts (music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy).

• Modern approach: separation of arts and sciences, but this misses the point that liberal arts education is about understanding each art in relation to the others.

• It tempts us to think of the arts as unscientific and the sciences as lacking in artistry. Anyone who has trespassed across this divide knows only too well how inaccurate that distinction is.

Trivium and Quadrivium

• Medieval approach: quadrivium (place where the four roads meet) and trivium (the three ways).

• Some suggest the trivium was invented by the Sophists.

• Protagoras asserted that harmony and rhythm of poetry and music must be impressed on the soul.

• Before the Sophists, we never hear of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. They must therefore have invented them.

• By the time of both theas, priority is given to number which is in itself a whole, then to music which is the harmony of holes in relation to each other, then to geometry and astronomy which explore magnitude without motion and with motion respectively.

• The order of the quadrivium sees the learner move from material in motion to the immaterial and unchangeable, or to theology philosophy, repeating the hierarchy in which freedom or education is the handmade of discipline and science.

• Order of the quadrivium: number \rightarrow music \rightarrow geometry \rightarrow astronomy.

Physics and Metaphysics

• Bothian texts as the standard for mathematical disciplines.

• Distinction between physics and metaphysics (body and soul).

• Creative tension between Plato's speculative philosophy and Aristotle's practical philosophy.

• Platonic: tripartite nature of the speculative (nature, mathematics, theology).

• Aristotelian: separation of theoretical and practical, scientific nature of physics, inseparability of bodies and sensible forms.

• Liberal arts education as working within the tension of theory and practice.

Dante's View

• Dante Alighieri: the highest faculty in a human being is not simply to exist, because the elements too share in the simple fact of existence, nor is it to exist in compound form, for that too is found in minerals, nor is it to exist as a living thing, for plants too share in that, nor is it to exist as a creature with sense perception, for that is also shared, but it is to exist as a creature who apprehends by means of the potential intellect. The intellectual potentiality of which I am speaking is not only concerned with universal ideas or classes, but also with particulars. And so it is often said that the theoretical intellect by extension becomes practical. Its goal then being doing and making.

Philosophy and the Liberal Arts

• Liberal arts as central to thinking and doing, universal and particular.

• Cicero: the subtle bond of a mutual relationship links together all arts which have any bearing upon the common life of mankind.

Hortus Deliciarum

• Reference to the Kirazes brothers' version (1977), with notes by Astrab and G. Keller.

• Preface by Herod to Hernanz: book titled Garden of Delights, drawn from holy scripture and philosophical works, inspired by God.

• Her book is a collection of pieces culled from all the branches of human knowledge. They were drawn from holy scripture, the fathers of the church and other authors, intermingled with her graceful poetry of which some was put to music, for Herod was a poetess as well as a musician.

• The aim: to refresh the spirit with spiritual sweetness.

Visual Description of the Image

• Working model of a stained glass artist for a rose window.

• Philosophy enthroned as queen, with Edica, Logica, Physica emerging from her forehead.

• Socrates and Plato at her feet, noting her words.

• Scroll: All wisdom comes from God. Only the wise can do what they will.

• Seven streams of living water (the liberal arts) flow from philosophy, with the Holy Spirit as their origin.

• Representations of the arts encircle philosophy.

• These arts are ever at her orders in the supreme direction she exerts over the trivia man, the quadrivium of profane studies, as expressed by the words inscribed in the circle that frames philosophy, plus Arty regens omnia qui sont ego philosophia subjectis Artys in septum divido parts.

• Detail of each art's representation (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy).

• Large circle with inscription: Plus, hek exorcisia comfdi philosophia in vistigavid, in vistigata nativit, scripto firmavit et alvenus in sinvavit.

• Herod excludes poets and magicians inspired by the unclean spirit.

• Description of the poets and magicians at the bottom, influenced by evil.

• Reference to details of the image (writing desk, penknives).

Notes on the Image and its Context

• The liberal arts in cathedrals and other artworks.

• Explanation of colors and dress of figures.

• Personifications, grammar, music and geometry wear a carmine blaio on lap of a white robe, Rhetoric and arithmetica blue blaio on top of a green robe.

• The two other liberal arts, a green blaio on top of a royal robe. The two small headdresses under the veil of astronomy and grammar are blue.

• Philosophy is dressed in blue and draped with a purple overcoat. Socrates wears a green robe with a Carmine overcoat. Plato a red robe with a blue overcoat.

• The Magi one and three, looking from the left, both with gray hair, were dressed in a green petticoat with a Carmine and red overcoat. Two wears a red robe and a blue overcoat. Four, a carmine petticoat with a blue overcoat. The colors of the hose are indicated in the same order. They were blue, white, red, and green.

• Citations and references to other works and historical contexts.
  ISBN ten zero eight nine two four one zero zero two seven ISBN thirteen Nine trillion seven hundred eighty billion eight hundred ninety two million four hundred ten thousand twenty six. 750 copies. 01/1899 .Cathedral Of Leon. Augzer, Chartres, on the principal door of Notre Dame Of Paris And Sains, under the porch of the Cathedral Al Friberg, in the ancient library or bookstore of Puayen Valle,

Omnis sapiensia a domino dia estate.

Septum font se pinguii fluent de philosophia, quii de cuntur liberales artis.

Spiritus sanctus inventoras deite septemberum liberaleum artiam, quii sonde, grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica, musica, arithmetica, Geometria, Astronomia.