 the trivium is a systematic method of critical thinking used to derive factual certainty from information perceived with the five senses â sight, sound, taste, tact, and smell. in the medieval university, the trivium was the lower division of the seven liberal arts, and comprised grammar, logic, and rhetoric.the oxford dictionary of english etymology, c.t. onions, editor. (1991) p. 944. etymologically, the latin word trivium means âthe place where three roads meetâ (tri + via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which comprised arithmetic (number), geometry (number in space), music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time). educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts of classical antiquity.the oxford dictionary of english etymology, c.t. onions, editor. (1991) p. 944. the trivium is implicit in the de nuptiis philologiae et mercurii (âon the marriage of philology and mercuryâ), by martianus capella, although the term was not used until the carolingian renaissance, when the term was coined, in imitation of the earlier quadrivium.henri-irÃ©nÃ©e marrou, "les arts libÃ©raux dans l'antiquitÃ© classique", pp. 6â27 in arts libÃ©raux et philosophie au moyen Ãge, (paris: vrin / montrÃ©al: institut d'Ã©tudes mÃ©diÃ©vales), 1969, pp. 18â19. grammar, logic, and rhetoric were essential to a classical education, as explained in plato's dialogues. together, the three subjects were included to and denoted by the word âtriviumâ during the middle ages, but the tradition of first learning those three subjects was established in ancient greece. contemporary iterations of the trivium are practised in the classical education movement. ==description== grammar teaches the mechanics of language to the student. this is the step where the student "comes to terms", i.e. defining the objects and information perceived by the five senses. hence, the law of identity: a tree is a tree, and not a cat. logic (also dialectic) is the "mechanics" of thought and of analysis; the process of identifying fallacious arguments and statements, and so systematically removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge that can be trusted. rhetoric is the application of language in order to instruct and to persuade the listener and the reader. it is the knowledge (grammar) now understood (logic) being transmitted outwards, as wisdom (rhetoric). in the trivium: the liberal arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric (2002), sister miriam joseph thus described the trivium: grammar is the art of inventing symbols and combining th
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