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Serfing the internet.
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Once upon a time, the world of education was divided into three spheres: Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, and Servile Arts. Fine (or “Beaux”) Arts means today pretty much what it meant when the phrase was coined. Think of bohemians in berets on the southern bank of the Seine. Painters, sculptors, poets, all making beautiful things.
Liberal and Servile Arts perhaps require a bit more historical context. Imagine a bunch of rich lads in Genoa, drinking wine as they plot to spend their fathers’ fortunes. Theirs is a gentrified world not unlike Downton Abbey (though predating it by at least six centuries). Lots of leisure time for the upper classes, but with less indoor plumbing and more church attendance. The fellows decide – more or less as a hobby – they’d like to know something about mathematics. They pool a few ducats and pay some monk to teach them a little algebra. Voila! The University is born.
