How classical education worked

Republic II, 376e

ἔστιν δέ που ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ σώμασι γυμναστική, ἡ δʼ ἐπὶ ψυχῇ μουσική.

…this has two divisions, gymnastic for the body, and music for the soul.

Republic VII, 521d

τί ἂν οὖν εἴη, ὦ Γλαύκων, μάθημα ψυχῆς ὁλκὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ γιγνομένου ἐπὶ τὸ ὄν;

What sort of knowledge is there which would draw the soul from becoming to being?

Republic VII, 523b

τὰ μὲν ἐν ταῖς αἰσθήσεσιν οὐ παρακαλοῦντα τὴν νόησιν εἰς ἐπίσκεψιν, ὡς ἱκανῶς ὑπὸ τῆς αἰσθήσεως κρινόμενα, τὰ δὲ παντάπασι διακελευόμενα ἐκείνην ἐπισκέψασθαι

…some of them do not invite thought because the sense is an adequate judge of them; while in the case of other objects sense is so untrustworthy that further enquiry is imperatively demanded.

Republic VII, 534e–535a

ὥσπερ θριγκὸς τοῖς μαθήμασιν ἡ διαλεκτικὴ ἡμῖν ἐπάνω κεῖσθαι, καὶ οὐκέτʼ ἄλλο τούτου μάθημα ἀνωτέρω ὀρθῶς ἂν ἐπιτίθεσθαι

Dialectic, then, as you will agree, is the coping-stone of the sciences, and is set over them; no other science can be placed higher.

Nicomachean Ethics VI.8, 1142a11–16

γεωμετρικοὶ μὲν νέοι καὶ μαθηματικοὶ γίνονται καὶ σοφοὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, φρόνιμος δʼ οὐ δοκεῖ γίνεσθαι. αἴτιον δʼ ὅτι καὶ τῶν καθʼ ἕκαστά ἐστιν ἡ φρόνησις, ἃ γίνεται γνώριμα ἐξ ἐμπειρίας

…while young men become geometricians and mathematicians and wise in matters like these, it is thought that a young man of practical wisdom cannot be found. The cause is that such wisdom is concerned not only with universals but with particulars, which become familiar from experience.

De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii II.220

nunc ergo mythus terminatus, infiunt artes libelli qui sequentes asserent.

Now, then, the myth is ended; the books that follow will set out the arts.

De institutione arithmetica I.1

Hoc igitur illud quadruvium est, quo his viandum sit, quibus excellentior animus a nobiscum procreatis sensibus ad intellegentiae certiora perducitur.

This, then, is that fourfold way (quadruvium) along which must travel those whose more excellent mind is led from the senses born with us to the greater certainties of understanding.

Scala claustralium (The Ladder of Monks) 1–2

quatuor spirituales gradus … scilicet, lectio, meditatio, oratio, et contemplatio. Hæc est Scala Claustralium, qua de terra in cœlum sublevantur. … Beatæ igitur vitæ dulcedinem lectio inquirit, meditatio invenit, oratio postulat, contemplatio degustat.

Four spiritual rungs: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. This is the ladder of monks, by which they are lifted from earth to heaven. … Reading seeks the sweetness of the blessed life, meditation finds it, prayer asks for it, contemplation tastes it.

Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿulūm (The Enumeration of the Sciences), preface

ونجعله في خمسة فصول: الأول في علم اللسان وأجزائه، والثاني في علم المنطق وأجزائه، والثالث في علوم التعاليم، وهي العدد والهندسة وعلم المناظر وعلم النجوم التعليمي وعلم الموسيقى وعلم الأثقال وعلوم الحيل، والرابع في العلم الطبيعي وأجزائه، وفي العلم الإلهي وأجزائه، والخامس في العلم المدني وأجزائه، وفي علم الفقه، وعلم الكلام.

We put it in five chapters: the first on the science of language and its parts; the second on logic and its parts; the third on the mathematical sciences, which are number, geometry, optics, mathematical astronomy, music, weights and devices; the fourth on natural science and its parts and on divine science and its parts; the fifth on civil science and its parts, and on jurisprudence and theology.

Rasāʾil, Epistle 1, On number

الفلسفة أولها محبة العلوم، وأوسطها معرفة حقائق الموجودات بحسب الطاقة الإنسانية، وآخرها القول والعمل بما يوافق العلم. والعلوم الفلسفية أربعة أنواع: أولها الرياضيات، والثاني المنطقيات، والثالث العلوم الطبيعيات، والرابع العلوم الإلهيات

Philosophy begins with the love of the sciences; its middle is knowing the realities of things as far as human power allows; its end is to speak and act in accordance with knowledge. The philosophical sciences are of four kinds: first mathematics, second logic, third the natural sciences, fourth the divine sciences.

as preserved by Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ

وأحضرت معلم القرآن ومعلم الأدب وأكملت العشر من العمر وقد أتيت على القرآن وعلى كثير من الأدب … حتى أحكمت على المنطق والطبيعي والرياضي ثم عدلت إلى الإلهي وقرأت كتاب ما بعد الطبيعة فما كنت أفهم ما فيه … حتى أعدت قراءته أربعين مرة وصار لي محفوظا

A teacher of the Qur'an and a teacher of letters were brought for me, and by the time I turned ten I had got through the Qur'an and a good deal of letters. … [Later,] once I had mastered logic, natural science and mathematics, I turned to divine science and read the Metaphysics. I did not understand what was in it … until I had read it forty times and it had become memorised.

al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt, opening

إني مهدت إليك في هذه الإشارات والتنبيهات أصولا وجملا من الحكمة إن أخذت الفطانة بيدك سهل عليك تفريعها وتفصيلها ومبتدئ من علم المنطق ومنتقل عنه إلى علم الطبيعة وما قبله

In these Pointers and Reminders I have laid out for you principles and summaries of philosophy; if insight takes you by the hand, it will be easy for you to branch them out and fill in the detail. I begin with logic and move from it to natural science and what comes before it.

Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, Book of Knowledge, on the duties of the student

الوظيفة الأولى تقديم طهارة النفس عن رذائل الأخلاق ومذموم الأوصاف إذ العلم عبادة القلب وصلاة السر وقربة الباطن إلى الله تعالى

The first duty: to put first the purifying of the soul from vile traits and blameworthy qualities. For knowledge is the worship of the heart, the prayer of the inner self, and the inward drawing near to God.

Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, Book of Knowledge, on the duties of the student

الوظيفة السابعة أن لا يخوض في فن حتى يستوفي الفن الذي قبله فإن العلوم مرتبة ترتيبا ضروريا وبعضها طريق إلى بعض والموفق من راعى ذلك الترتيب والتدريج

The seventh duty: not to plunge into a discipline until he has completed the one before it. For the sciences are ranked in a necessary order, some a road to others, and the one who succeeds is the one who keeps to that order and that gradation.

Muqaddima VI.36 (Rosenthal III:292)

اعلم أن تلقين العلوم للمتعلمين إنما يكون مفيدا إذا كان على التدريج شيئا فشيئا وقليلا قليلا

Know that teaching the sciences to learners is useful only when it goes by degrees, bit by bit and little by little.

Muqaddima, on the right way of teaching

ومن المذاهب الجميلة والطرق الواجبة في التعليم أن لا يخلط على المتعلم علمان معا فإنه حينئذ قل أن يظفر بواحد منهما

One of the fine methods, and one of the necessary ways in teaching, is not to confuse the learner with two sciences at once; for then he will hardly master either.

Muqaddima, “That the many abridgements harm teaching”

وربما عمدوا إلى الكتب الأمهات المطولة في الفنون للتفسير والبيان فاختصروها تقريبا للحفظ كما فعله ابن الحاجب في الفقه وابن مالك في العربية والخونجي في المنطق وأمثالهم. وهو فساد في التعليم

Often they took the long mother-books of the disciplines, written to explain and expound, and abridged them to make them easier to memorise, as Ibn al-Ḥājib did in law, Ibn Mālik in Arabic and al-Khūnajī in logic. This corrupts teaching.

Preface to his commentary on Ibn Sīnā's Ishārāt

ولذلك سمى بعض الظرفاء شرحه جرحا. ومن شرط الشارحين أن يبذلوا النصرة لما قد التزموا شرحه بقدر الإمكان … ليكونوا شارحين غير ناقضين ومفسرين غير معترضين

That is why a wit called his [al-Rāzī's] commentary (sharḥ) a wounding (jarḥ). It is a condition of commentators that they defend what they have undertaken to explain as far as they can … so as to be explainers, not demolishers; interpreters, not objectors.

Taʿlīm al-mutaʿallim, chapter on beginning the lesson (fī bidāyat al-sabaq)

ولا بد لطالب العلم من المذاكرة، والمناظرة، والمطارحة … وقيل: مطارحة ساعة، خير من تكرار شهر.

The student cannot do without going over the lesson together, debating it, and putting questions to one another. … It is said: an hour of exchange is better than a month of repetition.

al-Risāla, on the terms of the Sufis

والمقام: ما يتحقق به العبد بمنازلته من الآداب … وشرطه أن لا يرتقي من مقام إلى مقام آخر ما لم يستوف أحكام ذلك المقام … فالأحوال مواهب والمقامات مكاسب

A station (maqām) is the courtesy (adab) that the servant makes real in himself by dwelling in it … Its condition is that he does not climb from one station to another until he has fulfilled what that station requires. … States are gifts, and stations are earnings.

Guide of the Perplexed I.34 (Ibn Tibbon's Hebrew)

אי אפשר אם כן בהכרח, למי שירצה השלמות האנושי, מבלתי התלמד תחלה במלאכת ההיגיון ואחר כן בלימודיות לפי הסדר, ואחר כן בטבעיות, ואחר כן באלהיות.

Consequently he who wishes to attain to human perfection, must therefore first study Logic, next the various branches of Mathematics in their proper order, then Physics, and lastly Metaphysics.

al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl, on philosophy

ثم إني ابتدأت - بعد الفراغ من علم الكلام - بعلم الفلسفة، وعلمت يقينا: أنه لا يقف على فساد نوع من العلوم، من لا يقف على منتهى ذلك العلم

Then, after finishing with theology, I began on philosophy, and I knew for certain that no one can see what is unsound in a science who has not reached its furthest point.

Offices of Earth, the Guardian (Baoshi)

保氏：掌諫王惡，而養國子以道。乃教之六藝：一曰五禮，二曰六樂，三曰五射，四曰五馭，五曰六書，六曰九數。

The Guardian is charged with remonstrating against the king's faults and with nurturing the sons of the state in the Way. He teaches them the Six Arts: first, the five rites; second, the six musics; third, the five archeries; fourth, the five charioteerings; fifth, the six scripts; sixth, the nine reckonings.