A week ago I could not have told you what the trivium was. I know that the trivium was the basic three of the seven liberal arts, but I could not name them. They are grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. This week I ran across the idea of the trivium applied to learning a single subject, with the different arts being more general than you might think. Grammar, for instance, would not just be a set of rules, like the grammar of a language, but would be the basic knowledge of a subject. Dialectic would be the logic of a subject, how things are related, and how to discover and test those relationships. Rhetoric would be how to apply knowledge and make use of logic in practical and creative ways. In traditional education, these three were studied in sequence, but that is not strictly necessary.

(Searching the internet I have noticed that different people have different perspectives on the idea of the trivium and apply it in different ways to education. I join the club, with no pretense that I am being faithful to the original concept. )

As for grammar, there is quite a bit of go knowledge: the basics of capture and ko, the need for two eyes for independent life, the different types of eyes, the different kinds of seki, basic shapes, basic haengma, basic tesuji, etc. Much of it is encapsulated in proverbs, such as eight live, six die and hane at the head of two stones.

I think that dialectic encompasses technique: tesuji, tsumego, much of the endgame. These types of problems have provable solutions. Reading would also go here. I think that joseki would, too. Not that they are provable, but they undergo a dialectical process.

Rhetoric would include strategy and creative application of knowledge and technique: fuseki and much of the middle game; attack and defense, reduction, invasion, sabaki, shinogi, sacrifice, furikawari, etc.; advanced concepts such as thick and thin, heavy and light, kikashi and kikasare. Also efficiency and positional judgement.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

If learning go means learning the trivium of go, and I think that it does, then almost exclusive focus on dialectic, on tsumego and reading in particular, is misguided. I have expressed this opinion before, but the idea of the trivium gives a good perspective, I think.

More later, I expect, but it's late and I am off to bed.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I follow the three Rs myself

(or maybe the first R three times)

Very nice, thank you.

But:The grammar of a language is NOT “just a set of rules”: it presupposes basic knowledge of morphology, etc., no?

Cordially, Tom

_________________
“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

Well, not to get too far afield, but morphology has rules, no?

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Just saw the title and thought, "Hey, wasn't the Terrible Trivium" a villain in The Phantom Tollbooth?"

Yep, he was.

Not sure I want go lessons from this guy.



Sorry, feel free to stay on topic...

Thought for the day.

The traditional trivium was taught in stages: grammar, then dialectic, then rhetoric. But that is not strictly necessary. And in go terms, why not study shape (grammar), life and death (dialectic), and fuseki (rhetoric) at the same time? But to a large degree, the order of study is meaningful. There is no point in studying capturing races before learning the rule for capture, or, indeed, before learning about throwing in a stone to take away a liberty. Similarly, if you can't do life and death problems, why bother with shinogi?

I have seen people advise rank beginners to do life and death problems. Gack! I remember the first life and death problem I ever saw, when I was about 5 kyu. The correct answer to live looked obvious to me, but the refutation of the wrong answer depended upon Bent Four in the Corner, which I had never heard of. What is the point of doing life and death problems before you understand the bulky five eye, what the shape is, what the vital point is, and why? Learn the grammar of life and death first, and then you will have something to think about.

During my first year of playing go I mainly learned through play and reviewing games with my much more skilled opponents. I picked up a smattering of go grammar in a haphazard manner. For instance, I knew about eye vs. no eye, but only as a heuristic. Somehow, making an eye was almost magical in such fights. I didn't learn it properly, that the shared liberties belonged to the side with the eye, and why. I did not even know the term, shared liberty. Even though I was not bad for a social player, I lacked a solid foundation.

Even today, when there are many go books available for Western players, I don't think that it is unusual for players to have holes in their knowledge of the basics. So my thought for the day is this:

Master the grammar of go.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Thought for the day.

Some years ago I played a demo with Nam Chihyung. It was a replay endgame with coupons (taken from a Go Seigen game). OC, I was a bit more familiar with coupons than she was. I made a misstep early in the first round and fought like hell (raised the level of my game, perhaps ) to come back from it. In the replay -- we switched sides --, I sensed a difference. I was struggling while she was relaxed. In the end I lost by 2 points.

My belief is that she was relaxed because she had learned more about the game during the first round than I had. Because go is so profound, you are always facing novel challenges. You can't just fly on autopilot; you have to learn about the peculiar characteristics of each position. Your main tool for doing so is reading. She learned more about the game during the first round than I did because her reading was superior to mine.

Thought for the day:

Go is about learning, and during a game your main tool for learning is reading.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

He looks like Slenderman. Creepy!

_________________
Poka King of the south east.