Word Finder - scholasticism

definition

A tradition or school of philosophy, originating in the Middle Ages, that combines classical philosophy with Catholic theology

Hugh's pupil, Richard of St Victor, declares, in opposition to dialectic scholasticism, that the objects of mystic contemplation are partly above reason, and partly, as in the intuition of the Trinity, contrary to reason.

Scholasticism aims, it is true, in its chief representatives, at demonstrating that the content of revelation and the teaching of reason are identical.

The distinguishing characteristic of scholasticism is the acceptance by reason of a given matter, the truth of which is independent of rational grounds, and which remains a presupposition even when it cannot be understood.

Valentin Weigel (1533-1588), who stands under manifold obligations to Franck, represents also the influence of the semi-mystical physical speculation that marked the transition from scholasticism to modern times.

The final breakdown of scholasticism as a rationalized system of dogma may be seen in Nicolas (or Nicolaus) of Cusa (1401-1464), who distinguishes between the intellectus and the discursively acting ratio almost precisely in the style of later distinctions between the reason and the understanding.

More important in the history of scholasticism are the theological consequences to which Gilbert's realism led him.

Jewish orthodoxy found itself attacked by the more revolutionary aspects of mysticism and its tendencies to alter established customs. While the medieval scholasticism denied the possibility of knowing anything unattainable by reason, the spirit of the Kabbalah held that the Deity could be realized, and it sought to bridge the gulf.

Any frank recognition of the abbe's even general principles involves the abandonment of the identification of theology with scholasticism or even with specifically ancient thought in general.

Scholasticism in the widest sense thus extends from the 9th to the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century - from Erigena to Occam and his followers.

Scholasticism opens with a discussion of certain points in the Aristotelian logic; it speedily begins to apply its logical distinctions to the doctrines of the church; and when it attains its full stature in St Thomas it has, with the exception of certain mysteries, rationalized or Aristotelianized the whole churchly system.

But this is equivalent to a confession that Scholasticism had failed in its task, which was to rationalize the doctrines of the church.

But, although the relation of reason to an external authority thus constitutes the badge of medieval thought, it would be unjust to look upon Scholasticism as philosophically barren, and to speak as if reason, after an interregnum of a thousand years, resumed its rights at the Renaissance.

But each system is a fresh recognition of the rights of reason, and Scholasticism as a whole may be regarded as the history of the growth and gradual emancipation of reason which was completed in the movements of the Renaissance and the Reformation.

The next centuries show that peculiar combination of logic and theology which is the mark of Scholasticism, especially in the period before the r3th century.

Albertus Magnus introduces us at once to the great age of Scholasticism (1193-1280).

In another way also Occam heralds the'dissolution of Scholasticism.

In the revival of learning, scholarship supplanted scholasticism, and the old ways of medieval thinking were forgotten.

The coeval origin of consonants and vowels had indeed been questioned or denied by the earliest reformers (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin), but later, in the period of Protestant scholasticism and under the influence of one school of Jewish Rabbis, Protestant scholars in particular, and especially those .of the Swiss school, notably the Buxtorfs, had committed themselves to the view that the vowels formed an integral and original part of the text of the Old Testament; and this they maintained with all the more fervency.

He was held to this belief in the substantiality of bodies by his Christianity, by the influence of Aristotle, of scholasticism and of Cartesianism, as well as by his own mechanics.

Scholasticism he condemned on account of its unquestioning submission to Aristotle.

The purely philosophical theories of Aquinas are explained in the article Scholasticism.

By the "fathers," then, we understand the whole of extant Christian literature from the time of the apostles to the rise of scholasticism or the beginning of the middle ages.

Suarez may be considered almost the last eminent representative of scholasticism.

They are the last representatives, of mysticism within the limitations imposed by scholasticism.

Although some of its foremost exponents were famous Talmudists, it was a protest against excessive intellectualism and Aristotelian scholasticism.

It is divisible into two well-marked periods - the first extending to the end of the 12th century and embracing as its chief names Roscellinus, Anselm, William of Champeaux and Abelard, while the second extended from the beginning of the 13th century to the Renaissance and the general distraction of men's thoughts from the problems and methods of Scholasticism.

The first period of Scholasticism being thus at an end, there is an interval of nearly half a century without any noteworthy philosophical productions.

And, on the whole, the widening of intellectual interests is the chief feature by which the second period of Scholasticism may be distinguished from the first.

The great age of Scholasticism presents, indeed, a substantial unanimity upon this vexed point, maintaining at once, in different senses, the existence of the universals ante rem, re and post rem.

In general it may be said that Duns shows less confidence in the power of reason than Aquinas, and to that extent Erdmann and others are right in looking upon his system as the beginning of the decline of Scholasticism.

For Scholasticism, as perfected by Aquinas, implies the harmony of reason and faith, in the sense that they both teach the same truths.

His destructive criticism thus tended to reintroduce the dualism between faith and reason which Scholasticism had laboured through centuries to overcome, though Scotus himself, of course, had no such sceptical intention.

The last stage of Scholasticism preceding its dissolution is marked by the revival of Nominalism in a militant form.

The principle of the twofold nature of truth 1 thus embodied in Occam's system was unquestionably adopted by many merely to cloak their theological unbelief; and it is significant of the internal dissolution of Scholasticism.

They belong indeed (Gerson in particular) to the history of mysticism rather than of Scholasticism, and the same may be said of another cardinal, Nicolaus of Cusa (1401-1464), who is sometimes reckoned among the last of the Scholastics, but who has more affinity with Erigena than with any intervening teacher.

But after the beginning of the r 5th century Scholasticism was divorced from the spirit of the time, and it is useless to follow its history further.

Scholasticism had been the expression of a universal church and a common learned language.

The university of Paris, with its scholars of all nations numbered by thousands, was a symbol of the intellectual unity of Christendom; a.nd in the university of Paris, it may almost be said, Scholasticism was reared and flourished and died.

Scholasticism, therefore, which was in its essence ecclesiastical, had no longer a proper field for its activity.

A critical survey of recent literature on Scholasticism is given by Baeumker in the Archiv far Geschichte der Philosophie, vols.

The reaction against scholasticism was still in full tide; it was the transition time between the old and the new, when the eager and forwardlooking spirits had first of all to do battle with scholastic Aristotelianism.

A few of the humanists became Protestants - Melanchthon, Bucer, Oecolampadius and others - but the great majority of them, even if attracted for the moment by Luther's denunciation of scholasticism, speedily repudiated the movement.

A new type of theology made its appearance at the opening of the 16th century, in sharp contrast with the Aristotelian scholasticism of the Thomists and Scotists.

The result was a structure which is well named the Protestant scholasticism.

Here then, under Protestant scholasticism (Lutheran and Reformed), we have the first perfectly definite conception of dogma, and the most definite ever reached.

Every true dogma, says Johann Gerhard 8 - the most representative figure of Lutheran scholasticism - occurs in plain terms somewhere in Scripture.

But more important than all this, perhaps, is the thoroughly practical tone which Guido assumes in his theoretical writings, and which differs greatly from the clumsy scholasticism of his contemporaries and predecessors.

Luther never quite shook off scholasticism, whereas Zwingli had early learnt from Dr Thomas Wyttenbach that the time was at hand when scholastic theology must give place to the purer and more rational theology of the early Fathers and to a fearless study of the New Testament.

For his views and his controversy with Abelard, see Scholasticism and Abelard.

The monastic reform movement was essentially Latin in origin; and even more significant was the fact that scholasticism, the new theology, had its home in the Latin countries.