3. A Brief History of Critical Thinking, Pt. 3: Light in the Dark
The Story of Nowhere – Studies in Utopianism and Humanity
The Story of Nowhere (available as eBook, Audiobook, & Paperback): https://storyofnowhere.com/book/
The Story of Nowhere Podcast Introductory Episode—”Episode Zero”: https://storyofnowhere.com/zero/
A Brief History of Critical Thinking, Pt. 1: Shamans, Seers, and Sacred Geometry: https://storyofnowhere.com/historyofthinking1/
A Brief History of Critical Thinking, Pt. 2: The Life Examined: https://storyofnowhere.com/historyofthinking2/
Music Credits:
- “Discworld Soundtrack” (1995), “Arch Chancellor’s Study” & “Palace Dungeons”
- “Gregorian Chant – Deum Verum”
THE MIDDLE AGES
The Metalogicon: A Twelfth-Century Defense of the Verbal and Logical Arts of the Trivium – John of Salisbury
The Story of Civilization, Volume IV: The Age of Faith – Will Durant
“The Catholic Church – Builder of Civilization, Ep. 1: Introduction” – Tom Woods [Sampled in Episode]
“The Catholic Church – Builder of Civilization” (Full Series) – Tom Woods
LIBERAL ARTS & THE REMNANTS OF PAGANISM
“Liberal (adj.)” – Online Etymological Dictionary
- “From liber ‘free, unrestricted, unimpeded; unbridled, unchecked, licentious.’”
“Philosophy and the Liberal Arts” – Hortus Deliciarum
“Arts, Liberal, or Seven Liberal” – The New International Encyclopedia (1905)
- “Throughout the Middle Ages the ‘seven arts,’ as combined into the trivium and quadrivium, represent the sum of human learning.”
“Liberal Arts: Theory and Practice” – Mortimer Adler
“Liberal Arts and Liberal Education” – Ashland University
“Marcus Terentius Varro” – Encyclopedia Britannica Online
“Marcianus Capella” – Project Gutenberg
- “The book [De Nuptiis], embracing in résumé form the narrowed classical culture of his time, was dedicated to his son. Its frame story in the first two books relates the courtship and wedding of Mercury (intelligent or profitable pursuit), who has been refused by Wisdom, Divination and the Soul, with the maiden Philologia (learning, but literally “word-love”), who is made immortal under the protection of the gods, the Muses, the Cardinal Virtues and the Graces. The title refers to the allegorical union of the intellectually profitable pursuit (Mercury) of learning by way of the art of letters (Philology).
- “Among the wedding gifts are seven maids who will be Philology’s servants: they are the seven liberal arts: Grammar (an old woman with a knife for excising children’s grammatical errors), Dialectic, Rhetoric (a tall woman with a dress decorated with figures of speech and armed in a fashion to harm adversaries), Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and (musical) Harmony. Frances Yates comments that these images correspond closely to the rules for the creation of images for artificial memory.[5] As each art is introduced, she gives an exposition of the principles of the science she represents, thereby providing a summary of the seven liberal arts. Two other arts, Architecture and Medicine, were present at the feast, but since they care for earthly things, they were to keep silent in the company of the celestial deities.”
Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, Vol. II: The Marriage of Philology and Mercury – Stahl, Johnson, & Burge
“Born Again: Latin Platonism” – The History of Philosophy (Without Any Gaps)
“Logos” – Encyclopedia Britannica Online
- “Logos, (Greek: “word,” “reason,” or “plan”) plural logoi, in ancient Greek philosophy and early Christian theology, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning. Although the concept is also found in Indian, Egyptian, and Persian philosophical and theological systems, it became particularly significant in Christian writings and doctrines as a vehicle for conceiving the role of Jesus Christ as the principle of God active in the creation and the continuous structuring of the cosmos and in revealing the divine plan of salvation to human beings. It thus underlies the basic Christian doctrine of the preexistence of Jesus.”
“Johnny Cash Reads the Gospel of John, Chapter 1” – YouTube
“Biography of Tertullian, Father of Latin Theology” – Learn Religions
“St. Augustine” – Encyclopedia Britannica Online
“Life and Time: Augustine’s Confessions” – The History of Philosophy (Without Any Gaps)
- For coverage of St. Augustine specifically, see episodes 110-117
“Neo-Platonism” – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
THE CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE
“Charlemagne” – Ancient History Encyclopedia
“Charlemagne: Capitulary for Saxony, 775-790” – Medieval Sourcebook [Point 8 Cited in Episode]
- “7. If any one, in accordance with pagan rites, shall have caused the body of a dead man to be burned and shall have reduced his bones to ashes, let him be punished capitally.
- “8. If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter concealed among them shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, and shall have scorned to come to baptism and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death.
- “11. If any one shall have shown himself unfaithful to the lord king, let him be punished with a capital sentence.”
“The First & Second Reich” – Axis History
“Charlemagne’s Early Medieval Educational Reforms and Carolingian Schools” – Brewminate
Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools – Andrew Fleming West (1892)
- From Chapter 1, “The Seven Liberal Arts”:
- “Aristotle’s “liberal sciences” described studies which were not materially or financially gratifying, but gratifying to the mind and spirit
- “To the Greeks – at least, according to Pythagoras and Aristotle – an education in the “liberal arts” was merely preparatory for the study of philosophy; philosophy being the “highest” pursuit of all
- “The “liberal arts” were to be the “well-rounded” (circular) education given to a child who was free
- “The artes liberales were also central to a free Roman’s education by the time of Cicero
- “St. Augustine acknowledged the value of “pagan” education, strictly under the condition that Scripture and Church doctrine always be seen as the highest authority
“The Sevenfold Spirit of God” – Equip God’s People
“Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance” – The History Guide
“The Carolingian Renaissance and its Aftermath” – Encyclopedia Britannica Online
The Middle Ages – Morris Bishop
SCHOLASTICISM
“Scholasticism” – The Basics of Philosophy
“What is Scholasticism?” – Stanford University
“Scholasticism” – Catholic Answers
“The Art of Scholastic Disputation” – Rugwig
- “Hearing the formulation of the argument, the one responding should attend to nothing except to repeat integrally and faithfully the argument proposed, and meanwhile, while he repeats the argument, he should consider carefully whether each premise is true, and to be granted, or false, and to be denied, or doubtful or equivocal, and to be distinguished. He should likewise consider whether the consequence or illation is valid or invalid.
- “Finally, the one responding should take care to answer with few words, and to be bound only by the form of the argument. Nor should he give a reason for everything he says, unless a reason is asked of him. He should rather leave to the one arguing the entire burden of proof; for in this way the force of the argument becomes more formally clear, and it is the more quickly dispatched.”
“Anselm: Ontological Argument for God’s Existence” – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Summa Theologica – St. Thomas Aquinas
“Why is the Summa Important? (Aquinas 101)” – The Thomistic Institute
“St. Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastic Method” – YouTube
THE METALOGICON
John of Salisbury
- Standard Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- New Advent
- Spartacus Educational
- “Metalogicon (Defence of the Verbal & Logical Arts) was written to defend the study of all the seven liberal arts. John of Salisbury offers general exhortation to his readers to ‘reverence the words of the great authors… these words possess a certain majesty or prestige from the great names of antiquity with whom they are associated… they are very effective when used for proof or refutation.’
- “John of Salisbury pointed out that although he admired the work of the early Greek and Roman philosophers he ‘has not hesitated on occasions to prefer the opinions of the moderns to those of the ancients, and that he hopes that posterity will come to celebrate their glory, for many of his contemporaries have admirable qualities of mind and expression.’”
“John of Salisbury: A Politics of Virtue” – Libertarianism
“Liberty, Free Speech, and Killing Tyrants: John of Salisbury” – Libertarianism
“John of Salisbury, the Politicraticus, and Political Thought” – Rogers State University
“Enkyklios Paideia” – Brill Online
Unity of the Polis – Kevin Cole
“History… Interview: The Trivium Method vs. The Classical Trivium” – Unity of the Polis
- “[T]his trivium framework has consistently been employed as a system for imparting solidarity of language and culture and providing a uniform initiation into higher learning and the expanding forms of the body politic, from the monastic traditions and medieval universities through state controlled compulsory education. As explained by Seeley, the new English Trivium Method was to employ the English language and claims of a superior logic, history and tradition to justify the creation of a cultural unity for the British people and later for the English-Speaking people within the empire. It is an enculturation process that leads individuals to be subservient to arbitrarily defined rules, collectives and authorities who seek universal dominion for their mediums by subordinating the particularity and intrinsic value of outsider cultures and perspectives. This is accomplished through the management of language, oratory and thought, which like sense, perception and judgment are all inherent faculties of the human mind and our innate and instinctive predisposition to universal grammar and local language creation. Historically we see that the ‘uncivilized’ are cast as ‘barbarians’ because they refuse to be brought under the rules and propaganda of the dominant monoculture and would instead fight to retain their own independent systems of value no matter how ‘dull’ or ‘narrow’ they are deemed to be.”
“The Philosophy of Plato” – Will Durant (YouTube; From The Story of Philosophy)
- “The clergy, like Plato’s guardians [in The Republic], were placed in authority not by the suffrages of the people, but by their people, but by their talent as shown in ecclesiastical studies and administration, by their disposition to a life of meditation and simplicity, and (perhaps it should be added) by the influence of their relatives with the powers of state and church.”
