Know where term 'liberal arts' came from? Fun to find out...
Times Higher Education: The unholy market kills divine life of the mind, 2003-May-30, by Andrew Louth (via Nicholas Carr’s Rough Type blog)
The evolution of the university took the pattern of learning that characterized monastic life - reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation - out of the immediate context of the monastery. But it did not fundamentally alter it. At its heart was the search for knowledge for its own sake. It was an exercise of freedom on the part of human beings, and the disciplines involved were to enable one to think freely and creatively. These were the liberal arts, or free arts, as opposed to the servile arts to which a man is bound if he has in mind a limited task.
