"The trivium and quadrivium"

“...Hugh of St. Victor says, seven [liberal] arts are grouped together (leaving out certain other ones), because those who wanted to learn philosophy were first instructed in them. And the reason why they are divided into the trivium and quadrivium is that “they are as it were paths (viae) introducing the mind to the secrets of philosophy.” This is also in harmony with the Philosopher’s statement in the Metaphysics, that we must investigate the method of scientific thinking before the sciences themselves.”

~St. Thomas Aquinas: Commentary on the De Trinitate of Boethius, Q. 5, A. 1, ad 3.

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