Liberal arts education

The Seven Liberal Arts (Latin septem artes liberales, rarely also studia liberalia ) are incurred in the ancient canon of seven subjects. From the liberal arts tradition was the one free man ziemende education, their number seven, but only attested in late antiquity. In medieval teaching beings they were seen as preparation for the subjects of theology, law and medicine.

Scope and Organization

The liberal arts were so referred to them in relation to the practical arts (Artes mechanicae ) as a senior to be evaluated. Seneca writes in his 88th letter: Quare liberalia studia dicta sunt vides: quia homine libero digna sunt ( "You see why the liberal arts are so called: because they are worthy of a free man "). As a free man was one who did not have to work for a living. Thus, only those activities could be worthy, who had no connection with employment. A distinction in the liberal arts, the trivium ( three way ) the linguistic and logical- argumentative -oriented subjects that form the prerequisite for any study of the ( Latin ) Science, and the advanced quadrivium ( four-lane ) of mathematical subjects.

For Trivium included:

For quadrivium included:

They were represented in the tradition of Martianus Capella personified in the form of female allegories and often with the following attributes:

• Grammar - Rod
• Rhetoric - slate and stylus
• Dialectic - snake or dog's head
• Arithmetic - abacus or arithmetic rope
• Geometry - Circles or dust panel
• Music - musical instrument
• Astronomy - astrolabe

History

Antiquity

The Greek tradition began to emerge yet no canon of the liberal arts. The four mathematical subjects, however, were already mentioned by Plato in the Republic in connection with the training of the ideal statesman's next of philosophy as those teaching subjects that lead to rational knowledge, which Plato, in turn, already refers to the Pythagoreans. Aristotle distinguishes three worthy of a free man lifestyles ( βίοι ), all of which play in the field of beauty: ( a) in the enjoyment and consumption of the physically beautiful; ( b ) ( πολιτικός βίος ) in exerting beautiful deeds within the polis; ( c ) in exploring and looking beautiful spiritual things ( βίος θεωρητικός ).

The liberal arts experienced an encyclopedic treatment for the first time in the Roman scholar Varro disciplinae in the 1st century BC In Varro but comes just as Cicero and Vitruvius not before the number seven, but he treated the 8th and 9th book also medicine and architecture.

In the Hellenistic schools, the mathematics and science subjects were not informed, and also in urban education of the Roman Empire they were not part of the syllabus. Except Professional Studies in these subjects was only offered in schools of philosophy and was therefore only a small percentage of the population accessible. As a fixed canon of seven subjects the liberal arts are attested only in Late Antiquity ( Augustine and Martianus Capella ). For these authors, the purpose of acquiring knowledge in the seven subjects was not in school education; Rather, the main focus was a philosophical or religious (preparation of the soul to the rise in the intelligible world according to the teachings of Neoplatonism or into the region of divine things in the Christian sense ). Martianus Capella emphasizes explicitly that medicine and architecture does not belong to the canon.

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages, the seven liberal arts were in encyclopedic form mainly by Martianus Capella taught these arts to act as bridesmaids in its didactic poem From the wedding of Mercury and Philology and their teaching knowledge spread as wedding gifts, and by Cassiodorus and Isidore incorporation of the subject matter in his Etymologiae. There were also in individual subjects as basic textbooks of antiquity about the grammar, the Ars minor and Ars maior of Donatus, for the rhetoric of the (incorrectly) Cicero attributed Rhetorica ad Herrenium, for arithmetic and music, the two Institutiones of Boethius and the dialectic whose translations and commentaries on writings from Aristotle's Organon.

The instruction in the liberal arts was as a preparatory course between the elementary education ( reading and writing with elementary knowledge of Latin, arithmetic, singing ) and the actual scientific studies in which theology was at the forefront in the early Middle Ages. The fabric of the Artes or parts thereof mediated first the monastery, cathedral and cathedral schools and municipal educational institutions and free master. With the rise of universities the Faculty of Arts ( Facultas Artium ) was (along with theology, law, medicine ) integrated as one of the four schools in the study generals and thus became the forerunner of the Faculty of Arts, under whose name it some for the 15. century was continued.

Already in the teaching of scholastic Faculties of Arts, the curriculum of the liberal Artes changed considerably and took in the light of new translations of the writings of Aristotle and his Arab commentators, especially on philosophical topics. Rhetoric and music fell by the wayside, as did grammar, unless it has been continued as part of the study of the modes significandi as a kind of linguistic logic, while the dialectic gained in importance and in the broadest sense, science Artes to study in theoretical (physics, metaphysics ) and practical (ethics, economics, politics) philosophy were developed.

Studying at the faculty of arts remained a prerequisite for studying at the other three faculties. As an academic degree, the Faculty of Arts awarded by an intermediate exams the title of Bachelor of Arts and - if the bachelor is not his real studies took up at one of the other faculties - after re- examination the completion of the Master of Arts. The teaching license ( licentia docendi ) in the liberal arts was with restriction partly to acquire already as part of the bachelor, the full teaching qualification but only with a Master of Arts, in its place then since the 15th century, in the wake of the general detachment of the Magister joined by the doctor, the title of doctor philosophiae.

Renaissance

Under the guiding principle of Studia humanitatis who continued not to a specific ancient canon of subjects, but to the classical formulation of general education goals in Cicero, the Artes learned in the humanism of the 15th and 16th centuries, once again re-evaluate not only the Artes studies at the University, but also the pre-and non -university education efforts in school and private lessons concerned. Here, on the one hand were the subjects of the trivium through the study of a partially new canon of classic, now possibly also Greek pattern authors, focusing on the area of ​​the seal, on the other hand, in the philosophy of the practical over the theoretical philosophy, and also the study of history to the fore provided.

Liberal Arts in the USA

As a liberal arts is referred to in the American higher education degree programs that are intended to serve the general education and the training of basic intellectual abilities and skills. They differ so against the pre-employment or scientific specialized training programmatically from or are their upstream. The liberal arts studies are among the undergraduate studies and studied on their own, mostly private liberal arts colleges. Colleges of this type will often place a high value on individual support for students, small class sizes and team-based learning. The curricula vary, but typically include a wide range of topics from the fields of mathematics and natural sciences, social sciences, literature and language, as well as creative writing, art and music. The course usually takes four years and can be completed with a bachelor to be continued thereafter if necessary to a professional school or graduate school through a second degree in a specialized subject such as law, medicine, or business administration. A few liberal arts colleges also offer their own graduate studies.

The specifically aimed at general education mission of the liberal arts colleges had since the end of World War II - due to the training needs of returning veterans, and the increasing technical and information technology specialization of labor world - always pressure to adjust to special demand for a more vocationally and to the needs of each exposed to current labor market oriented training. According to a study from 1998, only 3% of all college graduates had acquired a degree from a liberal arts college in the United States, in the further education and professional life then, however, a disproportionate share of the economic and political leaders ( 8% of the Forbes list, 19 % of the U.S. President ), Pulitzer prize winners ( from 6% to 23%), Fulbright ( 9%) and the PhDs scientific studies reached.

The liberal arts college is a specifically American institution that does not occur or occurs in the British education and other countries only as an imitation or offshoot of the U.S. model. In Germany is based on this program, the private European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin. At the Leibniz Kolleg there generale a one-year study. Since the winter semester 2012 at University College, the University of Freiburg Freiburg at the four -year bachelor's degree Liberal Arts and Sciences. In the Netherlands, for example, the University College Maastricht find the Amsterdam University College (AUC ) and the University College Utrecht.