Ah, philosophy transcends and stands at the center of the liberal arts, holding all the rest together, as illustrated here:

www.circles-of-confusion.com/phil-lib-arts.jpg

I have no idea of how any of this was actually made into an actual curriculum and course of study. (Well, Plato in The Republic holds off philosophy as a study until age 30, after the rest are mastered. No idea whether this was at all followed in his Academy.) As I said, I suspect that the scope and borders of the traditional liberal arts were bent and shifted as time went on. (There is a classic article by Paul Kristeller on the shifting boundaries of the arts, rather than the liberal arts.) For Plato astronomy is treated with mathematics; up until quite recently science was treated as natural philosophy. I've always been amused at what seems to be an assumption that you can pick out the metaphysical joints of the world by looking at the listing of departments in a college catalog.

(Should forward the above image to the provost of the college I teach at next time he cuts philosophy courses or raises the minimum number of students I need to allow my Philosophy and Film course to go.)

j

On 11/13/10 11:33 AM, Henry M. Taylor wrote:

So if I get this right, there was no actual subject called philosophy in =

its own right? It being rather divided into a number of separate =

disciplines?

Henry