The Study Of "The Seven Liberal Arts" As The Basis Of Western Science

It is not a new insight to regard "the seven liberal arts"(the term "trivium" and the "quadrivium")as the most fundamental education system in the west,and many scholars have made very clear discussions.This thesis intends to clarify from the perspective of the history of thought and the history of science that the "the seven liberal arts" is not only a classic education system in the western education field,but in its essence,it can be said to be the "foundation of western science" : It has been the main carrier of western scientific thought since ancient Greece and its scientific implication has directly stipulated the scientific demonstration way,academic criterion and research paradigm,and cultivated and cast many scientific elites from ancient Greece to the modern scientific revolution period.No matter how the western scientific form changes,it is still at its "core".Since the 19th century,works devoted to "the seven liberal arts" have been rare,and the academic circles mostly analyze it from the perspective of education or educational history,and few scholars have made much explanation on its scientific connotation from the perspective of the history of thought,especially the history of science.This phenomenon has been changed in the last century.Some foreign scholars have noticed the scientific connotation of the "quadrivium" in the "the seven liberal arts" and have given it a high evaluation.However,after introducing and translating this kind of works in China,a small number of experts in philosophy of science have continued to explain the "quadrivium" according to this ideological path.Although this kind of research has been extended from the field of education to the field of philosophy of science,its content is limited to the "quadrivium",that is to say,the "quadrivium" are the foundation or even the core of science among "the seven liberal arts",and the effect of the "trivium" in the continuation and development of science is ignored.In view of this,this thesis proposes that the basis of science is not limited to the "quadrivium",but actually "the seven liberal arts";In other words,as an integrated knowledge system including the "quadrivium" and the "trivium","the seven liberal arts" is the foundation of science.It has rich scientific implications.It not only interprets the mysterious meaning of nature in a dual way of mathematics and lexicalization,but inherits the continuous scientific thought,and is the potential gene of western scientific research,as well as a deep understanding of western science.It is an important key to the academic spirit,scientific tradition and academic inheritance.Therefore,this thesis will be demonstrated the goal and is reflected in two aspects:one is the key of the history and the history of science as the main line,in an attempt to analyze the clear classical thought of "the seven liberal arts",and multi-dimensional present original features and evolution process of "the seven liberal arts" for subsequent scientific connotation and logic reasoning thinking clues,thought basis.At the same time,this thesis expounds the profound connotation of the integrated knowledge system of "the seven liberal arts" and each skill in it,thus excavates its scientific implication which has been hidden for a long time,and then demonstrates the rationality of the proposition that "the seven liberal arts" is the basis of science from the inside of the system.Second,this thesis uses the life deeds of many scholars,classic documents,historical commentaries and contemporary interpretations of classic documents involved in the "the seven liberal arts",and courses set up by Western schools in different periods as the analysis materials,at the same time,the biographical analysis method and the document analysis method are used to demonstrate the possibility of it as the basis of western science from the outside of the system.Finally,after drawing a reasonable conclusion,the possible contribution to domestic general education and scientific research is clarified.The research path of this thesis is roughly as follows: the introduction clarifies what is "the seven liberal arts" and the reasons for the research problem,defining the core concepts,narrating the current research status at home and abroad in detail,and pointing out the meaning,methods,chapter structure and deficiencies of this research.The first chapter fully elaborates the evolution path of "the seven liberal arts" in ancient Greece,Rome,the Middle Ages and modern times,and traces its classical origin;Chapter Two starts from the inside of "the seven liberal arts" and explores its hidden scientific connotation to clarify its deep connotation as the "foundation of Western science" from four dimensions: its origins of thought,research objects,theoretical characteristics,and research methods.Chapters 3,4 and 5 start from the outside of "the seven liberal arts" to investigate and analyze the lives of some important scientists,works and documents,curriculum settings and educational concepts of the corresponding period from ancient Greece to the modern scientific revolution as the research path,to demonstrate the external rationale of "the seven liberal arts" as the foundation of western science,and to further prove the full text of the viewpoint.Chapters 6 is the conclusion of this article and its theoretical and practical value,clarifying its benefit to the theory of "the seven liberal arts" and Kuhn's "paradigm" concept,as well as its enlightenment to domestic general education and scientific research.Before the late Middle Ages,"the seven liberal arts" was the sum of all human knowledge at that time;although it had always presented the "faces" of different disciplines—the name,content and quantity of the skills differed in different periods,but as a training subject for free and secular people,its effect of making people noble and obtaining objective knowledge through it has never changed.The seven skills in this system are the products of rational reasoning.When they explain nature,they fully use the methods of empirical analogy,induction and deductive reasoning,which embody the scientific spirit of western thinkers at that time,and this is exactly the essence and basis of science.It uses abstract and logical reasoning of concepts,using mathematically and verbally universal rationality and scientific methodology to explore the mysteries of nature.In short,as the basis of western science,"the seven liberal arts" has resonated with western science in its own unique form and quality since ancient Greece.