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 SCHOLASTICA

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SCHOLASTICISM

Scholastica, Saint. See Benedict op Nursia, Saint.

Scholasticism is a term used to designate both a method and a system. It is apphed to theology as well as to philosophy. Scholastic theology is distinguished from Patristic theolog>' on the one hand, and from posi- tive theology on the other (see Theology). The school- men themselves distinguished between iheologia spccu- lativa sive scholastica and theohgia positiva. Applied to philosophy, the word "Scholastic" is often used, also, to designate a chronological division intervening between the end of the Patristic era in the fifth century and the beginning of the modern era, about 1450. It will, therefore, make for clearness and order if we con- eider:!. Theoriginof the word "Scholastic"; II. The history of the period called Scholastic in the history of philosophy; III. The Scholastic method in philos- ophy, with incidental reference to the Scholastic method in theology; and IV. The contents of the Scholastic system. The revival of Scholasticism in recent times has been already treated under the head Neo-Scholasticism.

I. Origin of the Name "Scholastic". — There are in Greek literature a few instances of the use of the word (rxoXa(rTi»r6s to designate a professional philosopher. Historically, however, the word, as now used, is to be traced, not to Greek usage, but to early Christian institutions. In the Christian schools, especially after the beginning of the sixth century, it was customary to call the head of the school magister scholar, capiscola, or scholasiicus. As time went on, the last of these appellations was used exclusively. The curriculum of those schools in- cluded among the seven liberal arts, dialectic, which was at that time the only branch of philosophy stud- ied systematically. The head of the school generally taught dialectic, and out of his teaching grew both the manner of pliilosophizing and the system of philoso- phy that prevailed during all the Middle Ages. Consequently, the name "Scholastic" was used and is still u.sed to designate the method and system that grew out of the academic curriculum of the schools or, more definitely, out of the dialectical teaching of the masters of the schools {scholnstici) . It does not mat- ter that, historically, the Golden Age of Scholas- tic philosophy, namely, the thirteenth century, falls within a period when the schools, the curriculum of which was the seven liberal arts, including dialectic, had given way to another organization of studies, the sludui generalia, or universities. The name, once given, continued, as it almost always does, to desig- nate the method and system which had by this time passed into a new phase of development. Academi- cally, the philo.sophers of the thirteenth century are known as iruigislTi, or masters; historically, however, they are Scholastics, and continue to be so designated until the end of the medieval period. And, even after the close of the Middle Ages, a philosopher or theolo- gian who adopts the method or the system of the me- dieval Scholastics Ls said to be a Scholastic.

II. The Scholastic Period. — The period ex- tending from the beginning of Christian speculation to the time of St. Augustine, inclusive, is known as the Patristic era in philo.sophy and theology. In general, that era inclined U) Platonism and under- estimated the importance of Aristotle. The Fathers strove to construct on Platonic principles a system of Christian philo.sophy. They brought reason to the aid of Revelation. They leaned, however, tow- ards the doctrine of the mystics, and, in ultimate resort, rehed more on spiritual intuition than on dialectical proof for the establishment and explana- tion of the highest truths of philoHf)phy. Botwerm the end of the Patristic era in the fifth century and the beginning of the Scholastic era in the ninth there in- tervene a number of intercalary thinkers, as they may

be called, like Claudianus Mamertus, Boethius, Cassiodorus, St. Isidore of Seville, Venerable 13ede, etc., who helped to hand down to the new generation the traditions of the Patristic age and to continue into the Scholastic era the current of Platonism. With the Carlovingian revival of learning in the ninth century began a period of educational activity which resulted in a new phase of Christian thought known as Scholasticism. The first masters of the schools in the ninth century, Alcuin, Rabanus, etc., were not, indeed, more original than Boethius or Cassiodorus, — the first original thinker in the Scholastic era was John the Scot (see Eriugena, John Scotus). Never- theless they inaugurated the Scholastic movement, because they endeavoured to bring the Patristic (principally the Augustinian) tradition into touch with the new life of European Christianity. They did not abandon Platonism. They knew little of Aristotle except as a logician. But by the emphasis they laid on dialectical reasoning, they gave a new direc- tion to Christian tradition in philosophy. In the curriculum of the schools in which they taught, phi- losophy was represented by dialectic. On the text- books of dialectic which they used they wrote com- mentaries and glosses, into which, little by little, they admitted problems of psychology, metaphysics, cos- mology, and ethics. So that the Scholastic move- ment as a whole may be said to have sprung from the discussions of the dialecticians.

Method, contents, and conclusions were influenced by this origin. There resulted a species of Christian Rationalism which more than any other trait char- acterizes Scholastic philosophy in every successive stage of its development and marks it off very defi- nitely from the Patristic philosophy, which, as has been said, was ultimately intuitional and mystic. With Roscelin, who appeared about the middle of the eleventh century, the note of Rationalism is very distinctly sounded, and the first rumbling is heard of the inevitable reaction, the voice of Chris- tian mysticism uttering its note of warning, and condemning the excess into which Rationalism had fallen. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there- fore. Scholasticism passed through its period of storm and stress. On the one side were the advocates of reason, Roscelin, Abelard, Peter Lombard; on the other were the champions of mysticism, St. Anselm, St. Peter Dainian, St. Bernard, and the Victorines. Like all ardent advocates, the Rationalists went too far at first, and only gradually brought their method within the lines of orthodoxy and harmonized it with Christian reverence for the mysteri(^s of Faith. Like all conservative nnictionists, the mystics at first con- demned the use as well as the abuse of reason; they did not reach an intelligent compromise with the dia- lecticians until the end of the twelfth century. In the final outcome of the struggle, it was Rational- ism that, having modified its unreasonable claims, triumphed in the Christian schools, without, however, driving the mystics from the field.

Meantime, Eclectics, like John of Salisbury, and Platonists, like the members of the School of Chartres, gave to the Scholastic movement a broader spirit of toleration, imparted, so to speak, a sort of Human- ism to philosophy, so that, when we come to the eve of the thirteenth century, Scholasticism has made two very decided steps in advance. First, the use of reason in the discussion of spiritual tmth and the appli(ation of dialectic to theology are accepted with- out protest, sf) long as they are kept within the bounds of moderation. Second, there is a willingness on the; part of the Schoolmen to go outside the lines of strict ecclesiastical tradition and learn, not only from Aris- totle, who was nf)w beginning to be known as a metaphysician and a psychologist, but also from the Arabians and the Jews, whose works had begun to penetrate in Latin translations into the schools of