Scholasticism

a name applied to medieval methods of philosophical and theological study. Such studies were confined to schools and universities; hence those who pursued them were called schoolmen, and their methods scholasticism. In brief, these methods consisted in formal reasoning, and were the direct opposite of the more modern and scientific methods of investigating a subject by experiment and observation. The schoolmen regarded Aristotle as authority on all matters pertaining to philosophy, nor did they permit themselves to question the doctrines and teachings of the church. Attempting to apply the logic of Aristotle to theological problems, they asked not, "Are these doctrines true?" but "Why are they true?" To harmonize revelation and reason was thus their aim. Scholasticism came into prominence during the eleventh century, St. Anselm being mentioned usually as the earliest of the schoolmen, although the name is given sometimes to John Scotus Erigena, an Irish philosopher of the ninth century.

The greatest controversy among schoolmen was between the realists and nominalists. The nominalists held that general conceptions exist in name only; the realists, that such conceptions are actualities. These views led to endless discussions. In theology, the doctrine of the immaculate conception was one of the chief points of discussion. With Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas of the thirteenth century, scholasticism culminated. These two leaders represented the two great orders-Franciscan and Dominican-and their quarrels, taken up by unworthy successors and degenerating into wearisome hair-splitting quibbling, tended to weaken scholasticism. Roger Bacon was influential in its decline. He found fault with the dependence upon Aristotle, who, he declared, had only planted the tree of knowledge, which "had not yet put forth all its branches nor produced all its fruit." Mystical theology, appealing to the heart and spirit of man rather than to the reason, began to attract attention, and with Luther and the Reformation, scholastic philosophy ceased to be powerful. The writings of Lord Bacon and Descartes mark the transition to the more modern modes of thought, although in the universities scholasticism died slowly, and in some countries was to be found as late as the eighteenth century.

Taine says in regard to scholasticism that, "Three centuries of labor at the bottom of this black moat added not one idea to the human mind." This is true doubtless. Extended discussions over such questions as whether God can make a yardstick without two ends, whether more than one angel can occupy the same space at the same time, how many devils can dance on the point of a needle, and whether God knows more things that He is aware of, would hardly be expected to add anything to the sum of human knowledge. It must not be inferred, however, that scholasticism was devoid of service to intellectual progress. These philosophers were men of learning and insight, and their training in logic sharpened their minds and helped them to make accurate distinctions; while the constant appeal to reason "was preparing the way for the full and plain assertion of the principle of the freedom of thought."

See Abelard; Scotus; Duns; Bacon; Roger; Alcuin