Modern Scientific Rhetoric and the Septem Artes Liberales

Proposition: To an educated person, the ability to communicate and
discuss information is as important as simply possessing information.
Effective Communication and the Medieval Trivium
In the Middle Ages, Europeans divided scholarly learning and knowledge into seven categories,
the so-called Septem Artes Liberales or Seven Liberal Arts. These were further grouped into two
divisions, the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic) and the Quadrivium (Arithmetic,
Astronomy, Music and Geometry). The modern word trivial takes its meaning of “simple” from
the fact that the Trivium was the basic starting point for an educated person in the medieval
world.
In fact, this concept is based on Ancient Greek concepts. The Greek Stoic philosophers regarded
their task as developing a unified picture of the entire world (which sounds a lot like modern
science) and they held that this could only be achieved through physics (the study of how the
world works), ethics (the study of how humans work with one another) and logic (the tool used
to join these two pursuits and separate truth from falsehood). Logic was divided into what
became the Trivium: Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic.
2 The Seven Liberal Arts, ca. 1180 CE.
1 Abbess Herrad von
Landsberg

The depiction of the Seven Liberal Arts (2) is from the Hortus Delicarum (Garden of Delights)
by Herrad von Landsberg (1), the Abbess of Hohenburg Abbey near Strasbourg in what is now
eastern France. 1 Knowledge is depicted as a perfect circle, complete in all ways and enclosing
all things. The text in the circle reads “I am divine Philosophy, governing over the world with
the wisdom of the seven arts that are my subordinates.” Philosophia sits at the centre bringing
all the divisions together, supported by Socrates and Plato. From the top and proceeding
clockwise, we see each of the Liberal Arts depicted as the (female) Muses: Grammatica,
Rhetorica, Dialetica (Logic), Musica, Arithmetica, Geometria, and Astronomia. In the Medieval
view, the Artes Liberales were superior to the Artes Mechanicae (which were the skilled crafts,
engineering and the like) and the Artes Vulgares (the common applied skills).
At the bottom we see four male scholars with crows pecking at them, depicting the "godless" arts
of poetry and magic. The text reads “These men are guided by evil, impure spirits, and all that
comes from them are tales, fables, airy and frivolous poetry, or magic formulas.” 2
So what?
Chemistry is not part of the early medieval concept of education and scholarship. In fact,
chemistry grew out of the “godless” study of magic or alchemy and the “vulgar” skills of mining
and metallurgy! We certainly do not agree with Herrad’s implication that chemistry should be
outside the scope of rational knowledge. Why then talk about the Septem Artes Liberales and
the Trivium at all?
Many people today separate the expression of ideas from the ideas themselves. We see this in
the fact that most public schools no longer teach formal grammar or syntax, apparently in the
belief that such mechanical skills somehow inhibit students’ creativity. The Medieval concept of
knowledge, as we have seen, did not work this way. The Trivium taught the concepts and skills
of communication, persuasion and rational thought. The mathematical concepts and skills of the
Quadrivium (note that Music was considered to be mathematical, following the Greek
Pythagorean philosophers) rested upon this foundation.
My goal in this course on presenting chemistry talks is in a sense to return to the medieval notion
of education. The Rhetorical, Grammatical and Dialectical Trivium of presenting science should
not be separated from what we might call “the Quadrivium of Chemistry”: Analytical, Physical,
Inorganic and Organic/Biological. In learning how to present your results and ideas to others, it
is my hope that you will gain the ability to look at your science as an outsider does, to view your
data and conclusions critically and analytically, and to order and organize your thoughts about
your research. Perhaps these skills will not only help you to communicate, but will make you a
better scientist too.
1 Actually, this image and the portrait of Herrad von Landsberg are copies made in the mid 19 th century from the
original text of the Horus Delicarum. Unfortunately the original manuscript was lost in 1870 during the Franco-
Prussian War when the library in Strasbourg was destroyed. It is possible that the paintings were actually done by
Herrad herself, although this is not by any means proven.
2 Translations are from http:/www.uwec.edu/cas/libed/allegories.htm.