My thoughts exactly. All the good stuff. Today university is a bit of a joke. It's become a business. In light of the qualification inflation, unless you attend an ivy league university, or study something practical like medicine, forget it.
Today’s “universities” are selling “the college experience”. I kid you not. Years ago, my younger brother became a local Alumni rep for a well-regarded university. When he asked about academic rigorousness, he was told the number one priority was “giving the kids the college experience “. At $70K a year.
Oh I know. They learned. They were selling that when I went to school, ASU (party school), now it's one of the largest and wealthiest in the country ... Because that worked. University of Texas? Same story.
That party narrative of the 80s and 90s showed schools the path to getting rich.
I certainly feel that grammar and logic should be applied this way in public schools here and now. Try to actually encourage people to be less like sheep.
I think that geometry, arithmetic and logic should be taught to everyone in the academy. Today, the fields are very isolated from each other, but they shouldn't. These three specifically should be taught to everyone. Even stem students didn't think in the proportions between numbers, what they mean. Logic is a fundamental part of academia, but most students lack it.
Thanks. Yours is an important historical perspective. I doubt that there’s a vice chancellor of a modern university who understands this. Instead, ‘universities’ have become ‘intraversities’, which are funded, other than for vocational training. merely to ensure that ‘graduates’ adhere to the politics of the encumbent government. Thus they are subject to total thought control.
I take your point, which has merit. I was referring to a scenario, all too common, in which a neomarxist-infused university staff & student population feeds into a leftist government. I know of many here in Australia. You are quite correct in citing the response of many universities to the Trump administration. The response of Harvard to Trump’s threatening funding cuts has been understandably desperate, to say the least.
Harvard is panicking because nearly all their Endowment equity (assets minus liabilities) is tied up in illiquid mispriced PE and PC, and hedge funds. They cannot tap this to cover the shortfall in OpEx Trump is creating. As we used to say in the trading world, “Pigs always get slaughtered”.
Curious why you say this when universities seem to be hotbeds of transgressive ideology and political dissent? You can see this as recently as the George Floyd protests and the current open confrontation with the Trump administration by the institutions themselves
Medieval universities had one big problem: only a tiny elite could access them. But they got something right that we've completely lost: education wasn't intended as an accumulation of notions, but as systematic cognitive training. Each step built upon the last, toward the progressive integration of different knowledge domains.
We've dramatically expanded access to education, as millions more people can now learn almost anything, often for free. We've endless educational content, but a limited framework for connecting it all.
Incredibly interesting! Fascinating to read how they understood subjects like Astronomy and Music very differently than today but their understandings formed the basis of the modern discipline.
"Unlike modern mathematics, medieval arithmetic wasn’t so much about making calculations as it was about understanding what numbers actually are in themselves — odd and even, prime and composite, perfect and imperfect."
This reminds me that "arithmetic" is sometimes used for what's more often referred to as "number theory" nowadays. Perhaps the funniest form of this is J-P Serre's graduate textbook "A Course in Arithmetic".
I graduated from a classic, but for the US unusual, liberal arts school -- St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. We studied the seven liberal arts. In fact, the trivium and quadrivium are on the college's seal and logo, along with a motto in Latin: "Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque." "I make free adults out of children by means of books and a balance."
The four-year course of study is all required. There are no majors and no electives. If you transfer in from another college or university, you have to start as a freshman; so all students who graduate have studied the same subjects and texts. Four years of math, lab sciences, philosophy, language (first two years Ancient Greek, last two French), and one year of music. We read original sources (for example, Plato and Euclid, not glosses on them). The only time we used a textbook when I was there was for calculus in Junior year.
It was a great education, but of course it's not for everyone. Not a day goes by that I don't draw on something I learned there. And especially thess days, with pomo litcrit bullshit is everywhere in academe, I thank my lucky stars that I went to St. John's. (Graduate school almost 20 years later was a nightmare because nobody knew how to discuss a book and kept imposing their own wacko "theories" on it.)
In contrast, Rutgers tried an “experimental liberal arts college” in the 70’s. I was in the it first class year. No required courses, no grades, just “credit/no credit”,few rules. Smoking dope in class was not unheard of. Goin to a political protest against Nixon, Agnew, the war, or in support of the Chicago 8 earned you credits in Political Science. Originally named Livingston College, it only lasted maybe ten years. Not really an education for those not inclined to take serious courses. But hey, if one wanted to learn foraging, Uell Gibbons was there. But so was William Kuenstler for the politics. Students could also go to classes on the other campuses if they wanted more a more traditional curriculum. Most didn’t. They also had a large contingent of inner city youth from northern NJ that were distinctly not interested in education, but free tuition and room and board beat the alternative. They renamed the school and went in the total opposite direction.
Looks like it lasted until 2007, when it got merged in with other liberal arts colleges at Rutgers. Also, apparently the first department of Computer Science for Rutgers was established at Livingston.
The funny thing is that in high school I took the bare minimum of math and science to qualify for college and swore I would never take another math or science class as long as I lived. Then I ended up going to a school where they were required every year for four years!
But I did love Euclid, which was actually a lot of fun. I think St. John's does a very good job of demonstrating that all knowledge is interconnected, and one understands the term "Renaissance man" (or woman) much better because of it.
By the time we got to Junior Year, though the math and science got much harder, and by the time we were reading Einstein, well, you can imagine.
At the Bodleian library in Oxford the central courtyard has separate doorways named for the medieval disciplines named in the article. The central, prominent door leads to the most important faculty of the university. The author does not mention it.
"Unlike modern mathematics, medieval arithmetic wasn’t so much about making calculations as it was about understanding what numbers actually are in themselves..."
Actually, this is exactly like modern (pure-ish) mathematics...
Possible but unlikely, the Church was probably keeping a close eye on them so they had to keep it complementary to Christian thinking. At least with Theology around they kept SOME FORM of flexibility in that regard.
Perhaps you’ve covered this in this past but, would love articles on day to day life during any historical periods especially Ancient Rome, Dark Ages etc … ?
Logic should be mandatory today. If you can’t pass a basic logic class, you should have to retake it — we literally cannot have a functioning society without critical thinking. People are voting out here!
I can't help but wonder if University needs to revert to this a bit 🤣
My thoughts exactly. All the good stuff. Today university is a bit of a joke. It's become a business. In light of the qualification inflation, unless you attend an ivy league university, or study something practical like medicine, forget it.
Today’s “universities” are selling “the college experience”. I kid you not. Years ago, my younger brother became a local Alumni rep for a well-regarded university. When he asked about academic rigorousness, he was told the number one priority was “giving the kids the college experience “. At $70K a year.
Oh I know. They learned. They were selling that when I went to school, ASU (party school), now it's one of the largest and wealthiest in the country ... Because that worked. University of Texas? Same story.
That party narrative of the 80s and 90s showed schools the path to getting rich.
I certainly feel that grammar and logic should be applied this way in public schools here and now. Try to actually encourage people to be less like sheep.
I think that geometry, arithmetic and logic should be taught to everyone in the academy. Today, the fields are very isolated from each other, but they shouldn't. These three specifically should be taught to everyone. Even stem students didn't think in the proportions between numbers, what they mean. Logic is a fundamental part of academia, but most students lack it.
Thanks. Yours is an important historical perspective. I doubt that there’s a vice chancellor of a modern university who understands this. Instead, ‘universities’ have become ‘intraversities’, which are funded, other than for vocational training. merely to ensure that ‘graduates’ adhere to the politics of the encumbent government. Thus they are subject to total thought control.
I take your point, which has merit. I was referring to a scenario, all too common, in which a neomarxist-infused university staff & student population feeds into a leftist government. I know of many here in Australia. You are quite correct in citing the response of many universities to the Trump administration. The response of Harvard to Trump’s threatening funding cuts has been understandably desperate, to say the least.
Harvard is panicking because nearly all their Endowment equity (assets minus liabilities) is tied up in illiquid mispriced PE and PC, and hedge funds. They cannot tap this to cover the shortfall in OpEx Trump is creating. As we used to say in the trading world, “Pigs always get slaughtered”.
Curious why you say this when universities seem to be hotbeds of transgressive ideology and political dissent? You can see this as recently as the George Floyd protests and the current open confrontation with the Trump administration by the institutions themselves
Great, very interesting article 👍
Thank you!
Medieval universities had one big problem: only a tiny elite could access them. But they got something right that we've completely lost: education wasn't intended as an accumulation of notions, but as systematic cognitive training. Each step built upon the last, toward the progressive integration of different knowledge domains.
We've dramatically expanded access to education, as millions more people can now learn almost anything, often for free. We've endless educational content, but a limited framework for connecting it all.
Incredibly interesting! Fascinating to read how they understood subjects like Astronomy and Music very differently than today but their understandings formed the basis of the modern discipline.
"Unlike modern mathematics, medieval arithmetic wasn’t so much about making calculations as it was about understanding what numbers actually are in themselves — odd and even, prime and composite, perfect and imperfect."
This reminds me that "arithmetic" is sometimes used for what's more often referred to as "number theory" nowadays. Perhaps the funniest form of this is J-P Serre's graduate textbook "A Course in Arithmetic".
I graduated from a classic, but for the US unusual, liberal arts school -- St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. We studied the seven liberal arts. In fact, the trivium and quadrivium are on the college's seal and logo, along with a motto in Latin: "Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque." "I make free adults out of children by means of books and a balance."
The four-year course of study is all required. There are no majors and no electives. If you transfer in from another college or university, you have to start as a freshman; so all students who graduate have studied the same subjects and texts. Four years of math, lab sciences, philosophy, language (first two years Ancient Greek, last two French), and one year of music. We read original sources (for example, Plato and Euclid, not glosses on them). The only time we used a textbook when I was there was for calculus in Junior year.
It was a great education, but of course it's not for everyone. Not a day goes by that I don't draw on something I learned there. And especially thess days, with pomo litcrit bullshit is everywhere in academe, I thank my lucky stars that I went to St. John's. (Graduate school almost 20 years later was a nightmare because nobody knew how to discuss a book and kept imposing their own wacko "theories" on it.)
https://www.sjc.edu
(Yikes -- it just occurred to me that the writers of this Substack might be Johnnies!)
In contrast, Rutgers tried an “experimental liberal arts college” in the 70’s. I was in the it first class year. No required courses, no grades, just “credit/no credit”,few rules. Smoking dope in class was not unheard of. Goin to a political protest against Nixon, Agnew, the war, or in support of the Chicago 8 earned you credits in Political Science. Originally named Livingston College, it only lasted maybe ten years. Not really an education for those not inclined to take serious courses. But hey, if one wanted to learn foraging, Uell Gibbons was there. But so was William Kuenstler for the politics. Students could also go to classes on the other campuses if they wanted more a more traditional curriculum. Most didn’t. They also had a large contingent of inner city youth from northern NJ that were distinctly not interested in education, but free tuition and room and board beat the alternative. They renamed the school and went in the total opposite direction.
Looks like it lasted until 2007, when it got merged in with other liberal arts colleges at Rutgers. Also, apparently the first department of Computer Science for Rutgers was established at Livingston.
The funny thing is that in high school I took the bare minimum of math and science to qualify for college and swore I would never take another math or science class as long as I lived. Then I ended up going to a school where they were required every year for four years!
But I did love Euclid, which was actually a lot of fun. I think St. John's does a very good job of demonstrating that all knowledge is interconnected, and one understands the term "Renaissance man" (or woman) much better because of it.
By the time we got to Junior Year, though the math and science got much harder, and by the time we were reading Einstein, well, you can imagine.
At the Bodleian library in Oxford the central courtyard has separate doorways named for the medieval disciplines named in the article. The central, prominent door leads to the most important faculty of the university. The author does not mention it.
Theology.
"Unlike modern mathematics, medieval arithmetic wasn’t so much about making calculations as it was about understanding what numbers actually are in themselves..."
Actually, this is exactly like modern (pure-ish) mathematics...
They believed in "...divine order and proportion." Does this include a belief in the supernatural?
Possible but unlikely, the Church was probably keeping a close eye on them so they had to keep it complementary to Christian thinking. At least with Theology around they kept SOME FORM of flexibility in that regard.
Perhaps you’ve covered this in this past but, would love articles on day to day life during any historical periods especially Ancient Rome, Dark Ages etc … ?
You should consider creating a "Culturist syllabus".
If I ever have children of my own I'd want them to be exposed to all the ideas and truths that can be found in this blog.
Modern mathematics is not about calculation at all.
Logic should be mandatory today. If you can’t pass a basic logic class, you should have to retake it — we literally cannot have a functioning society without critical thinking. People are voting out here!