Abstract
The most popular critique of the liberal arts in general and philosophy in particular is that they are “useless” and fail to produce marketable skills. This contention was already dealt with by Aristotle who flatly denied that “utility” is the highest form of good. On the contrary useful goods, are “good” only in relation to something else, and so are inherently secondary and subordinate to what is good in itself – “the noble.” From this distinction between the “noble” and the “useful” arose the corresponding classical distinction and the liberal arts and the mechanical arts. For Seneca the liberal arts are those which befit the gentleman, who being “free” from necessary labor had leisure to pursue arts which have their own proper excellence - as poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy. Arts concerned with commerce, industry, and labor for practical and material gains were subordinated by the classics as merely useful, “mechanical” arts. This educational tradition of the liberal arts has exercised a vast influence on Western civilization long outlasting the classical world itself. While this distinction is indubitably connected with the Greco-Roman class structure, it also reflected a deeper humanist truth. As the intellectual and moral faculties are what is best and noblest in man, so their cultivation brings about the full stature of human dignity.
Quare liberalia studia dicta sint vides: quia homine libero digna sunt.
—Seneca . Epistularum Moralem ad Lucillium (88) http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/seneca.ep11-13.shtml (accessed May 5, 2018)
Those studies are to be called liberal because they are worthy of free men.
–Seneca . Moral Letter to Lucillius (88)
Verily it is slavish to long for life, instead of for the good life…and to seek for money but pay no attention to the noble.
–Aristotle. Protrepticus. (From Aristotle’s Protrepticus (fragment 52) cited in Werner Jaeger. Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development. (Oxford, 1962 -probable due to text wear): 60 (my ital.). Hereafter: Jaeger. Aristotle)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Aristophanes. Clouds. 153 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristoph.%20Cl.%20153&lang=original (accessed April 25, 2018).
- 2.
Two excellent discussions which have informed my thinking on the Protrepticus and the general problem of theoria in Aristotle are in Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development. (Oxford, 1962). and more recently A.W. Nightingale(ed.) Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy, (Cambridge University Press, 20,045) Both have been invaluable to me in this work.
- 3.
Plato . Republic. Book II. 357Aff.
- 4.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics . Book I.i (1094aff).
- 5.
From Protrepticus, B42 quoted A.W. Nightingale(ed.) Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy, (Cambridge University Press, 2004):194–195 (Greek texts removed – however the brackets are in the text. Save where mentioned as in this case, what is contained within brackets inside of quotations can be assumed to be added by the present author as for instance drawing attention to Greek terms employed in translated sections.]
- 6.
Nicomachean Ethics I.1ff
- 7.
Ibid. 4.
- 8.
Aristotle. Metaphysics. Α 980ª22.
- 9.
Ibid. 28–30.
- 10.
Aristotle. Metaphysics. Α 981a-b.
- 11.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics . X.vii (1177b).
- 12.
Aristotle. Metaphysics. Α 981b.
- 13.
Ibid. 982b.
- 14.
Idem.
- 15.
Ibid 982a.
- 16.
Aristotle. Metaphysics. Α 982b.
- 17.
Ibid. 983a.
- 18.
See H. Johnston. “Liberal Education ”. New Catholic Encyclopedia . Volume 8. (Washington D.C.: CUA Press, 1967, 1981 reprint):700–701.
- 19.
Christopher Dawson. The Crisis of Western Education .(Washington D.C.: CUA press, 2010): 5.
- 20.
Idem.
- 21.
See for example Xenophon’s Memorabilia. 2.2-3.
- 22.
This term seems to come from Aristophanes. See H.I. Marrou (supra), Chapter IV, 36ff. for the reference and general discussion of the archaic Greek education .
- 23.
See for example Jaeger. Paideia I, Chapter III “Homer as Educator”.
- 24.
Plato . Republic X. 606.
- 25.
Cf. for example Homer . Iliad. VI. 206.
- 26.
Plato. Apology. 28b-d.
- 27.
This Ciceronian ideal of the active political life was taken up in the “civic humanism ” of the Florentine Renaissance .
- 28.
Dawson. The Crisis of Western Education . (Supra), 24. Chapter III contains an excellent summary of education in the Renaissance .
- 29.
Leonardo Bruni. The Study of Literature. Trans. Craig W. Kallendorf. In Humanist Educational Treatises. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008).
- 30.
Pier Paolo Vergerio. Character and Studies. Ibid. 12. (Brackets with Latin term in original)
- 31.
See Leon Battista Alberti “On Painting”. http://www.noteaccess.com/Texts/Alberti/index.htm and De Re Aedifatoria. 1755. London: Edward Owen, http://archimedes.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/docuserver/images/archimedes/alber_archi_003_en_1785/downloads/alber_archi_003_en_1785.text.pdf (Accessed May, 2018).
- 32.
I believe this fact is discussed in this BBC talk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07bft7v (accessed April 28, 2018).
- 33.
Cicero . Pro Archia Poeta. Quod si non his tantus fructus ostenderetur, et si ex his studiis delectatio sola peteretur, tamen (ut opinor) hanc animi adversionem humanissimam ac liberalissimam iudicaretis. Nam ceterae neque temporum sunt neque aetatum omnium neque locorum: haec studia adulescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur. (http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/cicero/arche.html#16 – accessed April 29, 2018). http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/cicero/arch.html#16
- 34.
Hugh of St. Victor . Erudutionis Didascalicae. Libri Septem. (Liber Secundus. XXI), P. 760 http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/1096-1141,_Hugo_De_S_Victore,_Eruditionis_Didascalicae_Libri_Septem,_MLT.pdf – (from Migne Patrologia - accessed 5/4/2017).
- 35.
Idem.
- 36.
Idem.
- 37.
Xenophon. Oecenomicus. IV. 2. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0212%3Atext%3DEc.%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D2 (accessed 3/25/2015). Greek in brackets added.
- 38.
Xenophon. Memorabilia. I.2.17 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Mem.+1.2.17&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0207 (Accessed May 5, 2018). The term implies a combination of noble beauty (as of the soul), as well as moral goodness.
- 39.
Plato . Republic. 554a-554c. (my brackets).
- 40.
“Illiberales autem et sordidi quaestus mercennariorum omnium, quorumoperae, non quorum artes emuntur; est enim in illis ipsa merces auctoramentum servitutis. Sordidi etiam putandi, qui mercantur a mercatoribus, quod statim vendant; …Opificesqueomnes in sordida arte versantur; nec enim quicquam ingenuum habere potest officina. Minimeque artes eae probandae, quae ministrae sunt voluptatum”:Cicero . De Officiis I. 151. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D150 (Accessed 1/3/2018).
- 41.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca , Epistulae Morales, LXXXVIII nullum suspicio, nullum in bonis numero quod ad aes exit. Meritoria artificia sunt, hactenus utilia si praeparant ingenium, non detinent. Tamdiu enim istis inmorandum est. quamdiu nihil animus agere maius potest; (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/seneca.ep11-13.shtml - accessed April 29, 2018). English translation: Moral Letters to Lucillius: Letters from a Stoic. Aegitus. Can be accessed here: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Seneca_Lucius_Annaeus_Moral_letters_to_Lucilius?id=6ykJAwAAQBAJ. (Accessed October 25,2018). I believe this is the Richard Mott Gumere translation.
- 42.
Jaeger. Paideia I. xxiiii.
- 43.
Marrou.99.
- 44.
Aulus Gellius . 13:17 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/13*.html#17 (May 5).
- 45.
Aristotle. Metaphysics. Α 982b.
- 46.
Proptrepticus. Frg. 51 Cf. Jaeger. Aristotle. 51.
- 47.
Jacopo Sadoleto in Sadoleto on Education . A Translation of the De Pueris Recte Instituendis – Primary Source Edition. Ernest Trafford Campagnac (translator.) (Oxford University Press, 1916 – Nabu reprint): 12.
References
Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting (De Pictura). At Noteaccess.com. http://www.noteaccess.com/Texts/Alberti/index.htm. Accessed May 2018.
———. De Re Aedifatoria. 1755. London: Edward Owen. http://archimedes.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/docuserver/images/archimedes/alber_archi_003_en_1785/downloads/alber_archi_003_en_1785.text.pdf.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. 1926. (1999 reprint). Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. H. Rackham, 1999. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
———. Metaphysics 1933 (2003 reprint). Trans. Hugh Tredennick. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
Aristophanes. Clouds. In Perseus. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristoph.%20Cl.%20153&lang=original. Accessed 25 Apr 2018.
BBC. 2016. The Muses. In Our Time. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07bft7v. Accessed May 2018.
Capella, Martianus. 1836. De Nuptiis Philologiae, et Mercurii. Francofurti ad Moenum Varentrapp. At Archive.org. https://archive.org/details/denuptiisphilolo00martuoft. Accessed May 2018.
Cicero. Pro Archia Poeta. In Forum Romanum. http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/cicero/arche.html#16. Accessed 29 Apr 2018.
———. Cicero. De Officiis. In Perseus. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D150. Accessed 3 Jan 2018.
Dawson, Christopher. 2010 (reprint). The Crisis of Western Education. Washington, DC: CUA Press.
Gellius, Aulus. Noctes Atticae. Transcribed from Loeb 1927 (revised 1946). http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/1*.html. Accessed 5 May 2018.
Hugh of St. Victor. Erudutionis Didascalicae. Libri Septem. (Liber Secundus. XXI). In Documenta Catholica. http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/1096- 1141,_Hugo_De_S_Victore,_Eruditionis_Didascalicae_Libri_Septem,_MLT.pdf – from Migne Patrologia. Accessed 4 May 2017.
Jaeger, Werner. 1962. Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Johnston, H. 1967. Liberal Education. In The New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8. Washington, DC: CUA Press.
Nightingale, A.W. 2004. Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plato. 1930 (1999 reprint.) Republic. 1-5. Trans. Paul Shorey. Ed. Jeffrey Henderson. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
———. 1936 (2006 reprint). Republic.6-10. Trans. Paul Shorey. Ed. Jeffrey Henderson. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
Quintillian. 2001. Institutio Oratoria/The Orator’s Education. Books 9-10. Trans. Donald Russell. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
Sadoleto, Jacopo. 1916 translation. (Nabu reprint.) Sadoleto on Education. A Translation of the De Pueris Recte Instituendis Trans. Ernest Trafford Campagnac (translator.) Oxford University Press, 1916 – Nabu reprint.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Moral Essays. Trans. John W. Bassore. 1932 (2001 reprint). Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
———. Epistularum Moralem ad Lucillium LXXXVIII (88) At the Latin Library. http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/seneca.ep11-13.shtml. Accessed 5 May 2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rosenthal-Pubul, A.S. (2018). In Pursuit of the Noble: The Classical Birth of the Liberal Arts. In: The Theoretic Life - A Classical Ideal and its Modern Fate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02281-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02281-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02280-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02281-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)