Liberal Arts
Liberal Arts, in college, the program of studies that leads to a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree. The purpose of the four-year program is to give the student a liberal, or general, education—a broad intellectual foundation for adult life as contrasted with a vocational, or specialized, education.
The liberal arts include such subjects as literature, history, philosophy, economics, languages, sociology, government, and—when studied in conjunction with other liberal arts subjects—mathematics and the natural sciences. The liberal arts do not include vocational subjects, such as business administration, journalism, or engineering.
A liberal arts program can be a complete education in itself or may serve as a basis for advanced or professional study at the graduate level. In the first two years of undergraduate school, a liberal arts student studies a wide range of subjects. In the last two years he or she concentrates on one field—a major—but usually takes other subjects as well.
The term “liberal arts” comes from the Latin artes liberates, meaning the higher arts, which in Roman times only free men (liberi) were permitted to study. During the Middle Ages seven subjects were considered to make up the liberal arts—the trivium, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the quadrivium, consisting of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. The study of the quadrivium led to the Master of Arts degree.