I.  Philosophical Definitions:

• Philosophy:  "the love of wisdom.  In application, it is the study of the first principles and the ultimate causes of all knowable reality" (P.P.*, 172).

• Wisdom:  "the most perfect knowledge of the most important truths in the right order of emphasis, accompanied by a total, permanent disposition to live accordingly [i.e., there is a supernatural wisdom (via theology) and a natural wisdom (via philosophy)]" (P.P, 176).  Wisdom is an ideal, one which we ought to pursue until our deaths.

• Truth:  "the conformity of the mind with reality" (P.P., 175).  Truth "is saying what is, is, and what is not, is not" (Aristotle).

• Art:  "the skillful application of correct knowledge in the order of making.  It is a habit residing in the soul of the artist which is ordered toward making rather than mere doing" (P.P., 163).  ". . . the word Ars in scholastic philosophy applies to the doing well of a thing.  The scholastics talk of things like cooking and carpentry in terms of artistry.  The making aspect is the art of the thing.  Art is the ability to perform a complex operation successfully with correctness, facility, and speed" (P.P., 18).

• Science:  "in its philosophical sense, it is the systematic organization of facts and truths around what is already known about a thing in its causes.  These facts and truths, in order to be part of the science of a thing, must be proven by demonstration and thereby have acquired a certainty about them and, generally speaking, almost universal acceptance" (P.P., 174).  St. Thomas Aquinas notes that "there are two kinds of sciences.  There are some which proceed from a principle known by the natural light of intelligence, such as arithmetic and geometry and the like.  There are some which proceed from principles known by the light of a higher science:  thus the science of perspective [used in painting] proceeds from principles established by geometry, and music from principles established by arithmetic [Bach's masterpieces are some of the best examples]" (Summa Theologica, IaI, Q. 1, Art. 2).  Literature is an example of the second type of sciences.  The grouping together of sounds, especially in poetry, is based on the same principle that music is.  As certain notes sound well when played together, certain words or parts of words sound well when spoken together.

• Beauty:  "that quality which gives pleasure upon being seen by the eye [or heard with the ear] of the body or the 'eye' of the intellect.  Metaphysically speaking, beauty consists in a unity among diversity [e.g., God]" (P.P., 163).

• Literature: the art and science of creating beautifully truthful statements in order to teach and to entertain.  True literature is a science because it employs set forms and principles that come from grammar and the chosen genre (e.g., a Shakespearean sonnet, in order to be a Shakespearean sonnet, must have 14 lines and follow a certain rhyme scheme).  It is an art because a good author, who imitates the natural world in his own created world, composes something that is designed to instruct and entertain his fellow men.  In other words, literature's special quality and goal is to convey eternal truths in such a manner that their beauty is displayed and they are rendered rememberable.  It is not enough to simply group words or sounds together, for the purpose of literature is essentially didactic.
• Poet in Greek is poiein, or creator--one who imitates the creative power of God by creating his own worlds.  We speak of "composing" a poem in the same sense as a musician composes a concerto.  One who writes plays is called a "playwright" as one who builds ships is a "shipwright".
• The arts and sciences of literature, music, and the plastic arts (painting, sculpture, etc.) are all related.  Not only is there a music to poetry itself from the sound of the words, but also poems are often paired with music created with instruments because the two are so related.  The great poems are also known for their imagery.  A famous Greek saying is that "poetry is a talking picture; painting is poetry keeping silent".
• The mission of instructing while entertaining, when done in an excellent and highly artistic manner, opens what Pope Pius XII called "a window to the infinite".  The three great transcendental values of the good, the true, and the beautiful are put on display for all mankind to contemplate in a form that is based in, but not exactly like, the natural world.  The best poets "hold the mirror up to nature" as Hamlet instructed his performers.  This is why the classics, in speaking to all men of all times, have endured for so many years.

Aristotle (384-332 B.C.)

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

II.  The Seven Liberal Arts (these are the basis of a classically "liberal education" which all men ought to have as opposed to specialized or professional training [e.g., engineering or carpentry] which only those with that particular talent pursue):
 

The Trivium	The Quadrivium
Grammar: "the science and art of correct writing.  . . .  this habit resides in the intellect.  Its end is the conformity of one mind with other minds through the medium of the written word.  Grammar should be at the service of logic [see Percy's explanation of the triadic system of signs in Lost in the Cosmos]" (P.P., 167).	Arithmetic:  "the study of quantity as discreet or enumerable" (P.P., 169).  -Mathematics "is the science that utilizes quantity in the abstract, through number and measurement, for the purpose of establishing equational relations in that specific field.  Abstracting from the things that are numbered, measured, or equated, mathematics studies quantity in its threefold relations: discreet, equational [algebra, calculus, etc.], and continuous" (P.P., 169).
Logic:  "the science and art of correct reasoning.  An art that directs the act itself of reasoning, through which [one] proceeds in reasoning with order, facility and without error" (P.P., 169).  "The conformity of the mind to reason" (P.P., 16).	Geometry:  "the study of quantity as continuous" (P.P., 169).
Rhetoric: "the science and art of correct speaking [in order to persuade].  Its object is the conformity of two or more minds with the mind of the speaking artist" (P.P., 173).	Music:  "a fine art.  It is a concordant or harmonious, and simultaneous arrangement of sounds.  Sound is the object of hearing.  Music uses the brushes of instruments to compose beauty on a canvas for the ear" (P.P., 170).
	Astronomy:  a natural science involved with the study of the stars.  What the ancient Greek and medieval mind thought of as astronomy, we would often think of as astrology.

III.  Literary Definitions:

• Poetry:  a literary genre (or form) "which uses words as both speech and song, and, more rarely as typographical patterns, to reveal the realities that the senses record, the feelings salute, the mind perceives, and the shaping imagination records" (Deutsch, Poetry Handbook, pg 126).  Dante says poetry is "nothing but a rhetorical composition set to music."  Sidney calls poetry "a speaking picture:  with this end, to teach and delight."  Eliot says that poetry "is marked by intensity of feeling and gravity of import, which find expression in a musicianly concern for resonance in both the sounds and the associations of the words chosen."  There are many different types of poems from long epics like the Iliad or The Divine Comedy to very short lyrics of only a few lines.

• Drama:  a literary genre that consists of a structuring of action based on conflict that is usually designed to be performed before an audience.

• Comedy:  both a drama in which the conflict is between an individual and the society in which he lives with a more or less happy compromise at the end, and one that contains action and dialogue which reminds us of our physical nature (i.e., slapstick and comedic language).
•  Tragedy:  a drama in which the conflict is between an individual and metaphysical forces against which he cannot win.  This tragic hero (who classically is high up in society--a king or similar figure) has a tragic flaw (e.g., pride in Oedipus or inaction in Hamlet) in his otherwise noble character.  The hero is forced to make a tragic choice which reveals this flaw, which leads to an inevitable tragic fall.  As the play concludes and the hero deals with the tragic consequences, he gains tragic knowledge and often dies in the end.  The fall of a noble figure from such a high place in society generates fear (in the destruction and disordering of society) and pathos (pity for his condition).  In a great tragedy, these feelings of fear and pity cause catharsis--a pleasurable and  exhaustive cleansing of the emotions.

• Novel:  a literary genre that that involves an often very detailed re-creation of the real world to give a sense of the author's conception of how life was lived in the time(s) and place(s) he is writing about.

• Essay:  from the French essais, meaning "attempt".  Essays are usually short prose works that describe or reflect upon some ideas and experiences of the author.

• Short Story:  a story, according to Poe, that is short enough to be read in one sitting and is designed to produce some single effect (e.g., horror in "The Tell-Tale Heart").  All good stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and are designed to entertain the reader while teaching him something about humanity and the world.

IV.  Maxims (wise sayings):

- Gnothi seauton (Know thyself).
- Arche proton mathon archesthai (Before you rule, learn to be ruled).
- Hegemona poiou (Make reason your guide).
- Ta spoudaia meleta (Pursue worthy aims).
- Me kakois homilei (Do not have conversation or contact with the wicked).
-Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem (Remember, when life's path is steep, keep your mind even).
-Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit (Man proposes, God disposes).
-Non scholae sed vitae discimus (We do not learn for school, but for life).
-Respice post te, mortalem te esse memento (Look around you, remember you are mortal).
-Sapere aude! (Dare to be wise!).