Thesis: the average 18 year old student in, say, York in AD 800 (the middle of the so-called "Dark Ages") had read more, knew more languages, was better trained in logic, could read more music, knew more mathematics and astronomy than the average student from a university today.
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Thoughts: 1. I am only comparing students at the end of the Carolingian trivium + quadrivium with students at uni today, NOT how widespread education was/is. 2. I concede their 'mathematics' was limited (arithmetic + geometry; probably projecting my own limited maths onto others
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3. Re 'music'. They had limited notation (probably more than average student today, who doesn't have any). But their real musical prowess was theoretical, understanding the maths of harmonic proportions. 4. Some paupers and girls did go to school. This wasn't only elites.
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Replying to @johnpauldickson
How exactly are you averaging the average student The *modal* student today probably cannot read or play music at all (people who don't still outnumber people who do) but in terms of the median student, or an imaginary mean student? You're completely wrong
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Replying to @arthur_affect @johnpauldickson
(Those are math terms, look it up) Musical training is so much more common in society in the modern era than in eras past it's ridiculous You can just put up a sign at the mall and relatively quickly gather enough people to form a band
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Replying to @arthur_affect @johnpauldickson
Like do you understand what a privilege that is, what level of economic surplus that entails that we have a society where vast swathes of the population can buy a guitar and learn to play it in their spare time and do so long enough to get good at it
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Replying to @arthur_affect @johnpauldickson
tbf he claimed " read music" which is something you don't learn from practicing with a guitar
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Replying to @Robobengt @johnpauldickson
"Reading music" in and of itself is so much easier than actually playing an instrument (the many people who play without learning to sight read notwithstanding)
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People in AD 800 couldn't read music either, the notation hadn't been invented They had crude notations for relative pitch - which means if you can read a Guitar Hero note chart you are just as musically literate as someone from the 800s
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He's talking like it's a big deal to know the Pythagorean ratios that define the harmonies In practical, laymen's terms this is just being able to recognize a chord Which is also far, far more common now than it has been at any previous time in history
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Plus this predates polyphony in the West by 100 years.
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