– The traditional liberal-arts curriculum of the word-based Trivium (grammar, dialectic/logic, rhetoric) and the number-based Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) has an intrinsic unity. Used in an integrated way, it provides a tool for self-development, self-realisation and self-integration. The purpose of this paper is to outline the core nature of the integrative quality of the liberal-arts curriculum, trace the gradual disintegration of the curriculum from its adoption in classical Greece, and provide practical suggestions for the re-integration of the curriculum in the context of modern educational practice.
– The paper presents a philosophical survey of the history of the theory and practice relating to the intrinsic integrated quality of liberal-arts education from pre-classical Greece to the present day.
– The integrated quality of the liberal-arts curriculum has experienced a gradual disintegration from its adoption in classical Greece to the twenty-first century. The paper provides practical suggestions for the re-integration of an integrated approach to the curriculum in the context of modern educational practice.
– Re-engaging with the integrated quality of the liberal-arts curriculum is vital for fulfilling the purpose of education as a practice: that of enabling a human being to flourish in a holistic way, in order to take an active role within a civil society.
– The paper provides a valuable antidote to overly rational thinking by arguing for the need to restore the intrinsic integrative quality of the liberal-arts curriculum in educational practice in order to support the flourishing of individuals, society in order for the emergence of a mutually supportive interaction between them to appear.
