Philosopher Mortimer J. Adler defined the liberal arts in his book Reforming Education:
The liberal arts are often misunderstood to be humanities, “literary arts,” or English classes. (37) Adler defined the liberal arts as “the arts of . . . reading, writing, speaking, listening, and all the mathematical disciplines and scientific skills.” (282) In addition to learning the basic arts of reading, writing, and reasoning, students of liberal arts read great books, “not English literature, but literature in all its forms and all its books,” (153) including great works of philosophy, mathematics, science, and history as part of a “heterogeneous collection, all of which should be read together by the same students with the same teacher.” (161-2) This rarely occurs in schools today, where science, history, and philosophy are usually studied in separate, specialized classes.
Many do not understand that science and mathematics are liberal arts, too, insofar as they are taught with the goal to cultivate the mind and body, and not as training for an occupation. One example is reading great works of science not for the purpose of becoming a scientist, but to increase understanding of that field of knowledge. According to Adler, liberal arts are best studied as a consistent curriculum of reading, writing, and reckoning which has, unfortunately, been relegated to subject-specific departments or courses in order to provide students with specialized skills training. (67)
After spending many years working in a university setting, Adler referred to faculty meetings as “a gathering of scientists, philosophers, and theologians, who have no common universe of discourse.” (37) The liberal arts can bridge this gap, Adler said, by providing professionals with a “common universe” to help them “communicate with one another across all the specialized fields of learning.” (121)
One objective of liberal education, Adler says, is “the production of disciplined, as well as cultivated, minds.” (163) Modern day negligence of the liberal arts has resulted in what Adler calls “minds which are cultivated only by a superficial literacy.” (47)
Classical education is a methodology for teaching the liberal arts that incorporates classical (ancient), time-tested methods of instruction.
--Copyright 2006, Vergerius Society Papers