Hi Pinwheel and all,
First of all, @Phinwheel: thanks a lot for your input in the discussion. You are critical and bring in new information that is relevant, at least to me.
I have listened to the Alex Jones interview with Jan Irvin in the train to work this morning and was is very interesting. My conclusions now is that the story of the trivium comes very close to how I work, even though I apply it unconsciously. However, the principle of gather date - understand/reason - explain to others, immediately reminded me of the way software engineering was done, say, 15 years ago compared to now.
Previously, the software engineering process was considered as consisting of a number of steps: specify - design - implement - test. But when computer programs became much larger and thus much more complex, this did not work anymore. Simply, because in the translation of specification to design the human brain is not capable of keeping track of all consequences of your design decisions on all layers and modules of the program you're designing. So, today software develepment methods known as "scrum" and "agile" are evolutionary in character. You start with some small base that does some aspects of what you want, and gradually expand that base, while basically performing the classic "specify - design - implement - test" cycle on the fly over and over again until finally you get it "right".
In other words: when you're dealing with complex problems, you cannot just "gather data - think logical" and only when you're finished thinking "communicate and explain to others". You need a process that involves feedback and the correction of errors and inconsistencies, simply because "IT" is far too complex to be tackled by one person.
To me that means that it is very important to share your thoughts and data with others and discuss it. That is the only way to become aware of any flaws in your logic and/or the incorporation of false data you thought was reliable.
So, I'm afraid we're all in this together....
The story about the Quadrivium seems what Eric is trying to teach us about with the discussion about dimensions.
This seems to sum the principles of Trivium and Qadrivium, the seven liberal arts, up pretty nicely:
Realization
Also see: Liberal arts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So, I'm definately going to listen to the other two vids.
First of all, @Phinwheel: thanks a lot for your input in the discussion. You are critical and bring in new information that is relevant, at least to me.
I have listened to the Alex Jones interview with Jan Irvin in the train to work this morning and was is very interesting. My conclusions now is that the story of the trivium comes very close to how I work, even though I apply it unconsciously. However, the principle of gather date - understand/reason - explain to others, immediately reminded me of the way software engineering was done, say, 15 years ago compared to now.
Previously, the software engineering process was considered as consisting of a number of steps: specify - design - implement - test. But when computer programs became much larger and thus much more complex, this did not work anymore. Simply, because in the translation of specification to design the human brain is not capable of keeping track of all consequences of your design decisions on all layers and modules of the program you're designing. So, today software develepment methods known as "scrum" and "agile" are evolutionary in character. You start with some small base that does some aspects of what you want, and gradually expand that base, while basically performing the classic "specify - design - implement - test" cycle on the fly over and over again until finally you get it "right".
In other words: when you're dealing with complex problems, you cannot just "gather data - think logical" and only when you're finished thinking "communicate and explain to others". You need a process that involves feedback and the correction of errors and inconsistencies, simply because "IT" is far too complex to be tackled by one person.
To me that means that it is very important to share your thoughts and data with others and discuss it. That is the only way to become aware of any flaws in your logic and/or the incorporation of false data you thought was reliable.
So, I'm afraid we're all in this together....
The story about the Quadrivium seems what Eric is trying to teach us about with the discussion about dimensions.
This seems to sum the principles of Trivium and Qadrivium, the seven liberal arts, up pretty nicely:
Realization
Simply put, the Trivium and Quadrivium method of education is a SYSTEMATIC method that teaches people how to think, not what to think, and thus, allows one to become an autodidact. The three constituents that make up the Trivium are General Grammar or Knowledge, Logic or Understanding, and Argumentation also called Rhetoric, and can also be seen as Wisdom. The four parts of the Quadrivium are Mathematics which is used in its ancient meaning of the term, which means Science, Geometry, which deals with numbers in space, Music, which deals with numbers in time, and Astronomy, which deals with numbers in both space and time.
[...]
It is also interesting, that in the Trivium which is the core of the method of the Trivium and Quadrivium, General grammar or knowledge is the first subject that is taught, and it is all about defenitions. It also is interesting that Socrates was all about definitions, he said something like, you can anything about a given thing unless you know what the thing IS.
There is a nice page which talks about that here: Socratic Definitions
[...]
It is also interesting, that in the Trivium which is the core of the method of the Trivium and Quadrivium, General grammar or knowledge is the first subject that is taught, and it is all about defenitions. It also is interesting that Socrates was all about definitions, he said something like, you can anything about a given thing unless you know what the thing IS.
There is a nice page which talks about that here: Socratic Definitions
So, I'm definately going to listen to the other two vids.
Comment