The Place of Dialectic Teaching in Sixteenth-Century Cambridge

Abstract

According to the social historian, it is difficult to reconcile the expanding outlook and increased involvement in the world of public affairs of a university like Cambridge during the sixteenth century with the conservatism and insularity of the teaching programme which apparently persisted throughout the period. In the present paper I reconsider this question of the integration or lack of integration of the Cambridge curriculum with expanding interests outside the university, taking as the focus for my inquiry the pivotal study of the course, dialectic. I start by looking at the four-year arts course, leading to the first degree of B. A., as a whole.