Trivium is the method for knowing how to learn or know anything. It is the method that helps us to determine the veracity (truthfulness) of information.
Trivium comes from the Latin tri- three and Latin via- road, path, way. It is the three-way path to the knowledge. Those three paths to knowledge are grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
In modern terms, we can describe three steps of Trivium as input, processing, and output. These are the processes which every computer performs. A human brain is essentially the biological computer.
Trivium is used in conjunction with Quadrivium. Quadrivium is composed of sciences of measurement (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). These 7 subjects are 7 liberal arts.
Liber is the Latin word for book and is also the word for liberty. Reading books with critical skills brings us knowledge which leads to freedom (liberty). Knowledge is power and occulting of information creates a differential in power.
Occult simply means to hide, to conceal. Without the critical learning skills and access to occulted information, we will create confusion, fear, and chaos.
Much of the information has been occulted and it is through the process of de- occulting important information that we can free our minds and communicate that knowledge to others. It is the process of helping each other to free our minds.
This is the phase of gathering information, of gathering raw data from various sources. In this phase, it is important to gather as much information as possible. We are learning who, what, where and when of the particular subject of interest. At this stage, you don't have to understand every bit of the subject.
One of the valuable skills in this phase is taking notes. This will allow you to organize information easily.
We should seek essential information first, we don't need to know every single bit of particular subject.
In this phase, we need to filter information, we need to find distractions, irrelevant information, and misinformation. This is a very important process because there is so much misinformation and distractions that we need to be very vigilant with every bit of information.
Knowledge about logical fallacies will really help us in this phase. Some of the most common logical fallacies are:
- straw man- attacking a false version of a person's argument
- appeal to authority- basing a veracity of information of person's perceived authority
- appeal to popularity- basing a truthfulness of a claim on the fact that most people agree with that
- ad hominem- attacking the person instead of a person's argument
- red herring- a distraction away from the topic
- appeal to ridicule- using a laugh to refute the evidence
There are numerous other fallacies.
In logical phase, we also make connections between raw data, we make sense of the information and analyze it to determine the veracity of the information.
This is the final phase of Trivium method. We have gathered information about the subject, we filtrated information, we eliminated contradictions and came to the conclusions.
Now it is time to do something with the knowledge that we gathered. This is the action phase. You can speak and act based on our understanding.
