Scholasticism is a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700.See Steven P. Marone, "Medieval philosophy in context" in A. S. McGrade, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). On the difference between scholastic and medieval monastic postures towards learning, see Jean Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (New York: Fordham University Press, 1970) esp. 89; 238ff. It is known for employing logically precise analyses toward the goal of reconciling classical philosophy (particularly Aristotelian logic) and Catholic Christianity.Grayling, A. C. (2019). The History of Philosophy. Penguin Press, pp. 146-7.
The Scholastics, also known as Schoolmen, used dialectical reasoning predicated upon Aristotelianism and the Ten Categories. Scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translated medieval Judeo-Islamic philosophies, and rediscovered the collected works of Aristotle. Endeavoring to harmonize Aristotle's metaphysics and Latin Catholic theology, these monastic schools became the basis of the earliest European medieval universities, and thus became the bedrock for the development of modern science and philosophy in the Western world. The rise of scholasticism was closely associated with these schools that flourished in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and England.Gracia, Jorge JE, and Timothy B. Noone, eds. A companion to philosophy in the middle ages. John Wiley & Sons, 2008, 55–64
Scholasticism is a method of learning, more than a philosophy or a theology, since it places a strong emphasis on dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference and to resolve contradictions. Scholastic thought is also known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. In the classroom and in writing, it often takes the form of explicit disputation: a topic drawn from the tradition is broached in the form of a proposition on a question to be debated, oppositional responses are given, a counterproposal is argued and oppositional arguments rebutted. Because of its emphasis on rigorous dialectical method, scholasticism was eventually applied to many other fields of study.Patte, Daniel. The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity. Ed. Daniel Patte. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 11132-1133Grant, Edward. God and Reason in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, 2004, 159
Scholasticism was initially a program conducted by medieval Christian thinkers attempting to harmonize, on the one hand, the various authorities internal to their own tradition and, on the other, that tradition as a whole with classical and late antique philosophy. Scholasticism came to see both Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism—the latter mediated primarily through Pseudo-Dionysius, Augustine, Boethius, and Muslim philosophers like Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd, who relied heavily on Proclus and Plotinus—as philosophies requiring integration into a Christian metaphysics.In the case of Aquinas, for instance, see Jan Aertsen, "Aquinas' philosophy in its historical setting" in The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, ed. Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). Jean Leclerq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (New York: Fordham University Press, 1970).
Prominent scholastic figures from the 12th through 14th centuries (the "first scholasticism") include Anselm of Canterbury ("the father of scholasticism"Grant, Edward. God and Reason in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, 2004, 56), Peter Abelard, Peter Lombard, Alexander of Hales, Robert Grosseteste, Albert the Great, Bonaventure, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, John Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Meister Eckhart, and Gabriel Biel. Aquinas's masterwork, the Summa Theologiae (1265–1274), is widely considered to be one of the pinnacles of the first scholasticism. The predominance of the scholastic approach to theology and philosophy extended well into the early modern period with Catholic scholastics like Francisco Suárez, Bartolome de las Casas, and Luis de Molina; Lutheran scholastics like Philip Melanchthon, Martin Chemnitz, and Johannes Andreas Quenstedt; and Calvinist scholastics like John Owen, Francis Turretin, and Peter Martyr Vermigli (the "second scholasticism"). Neo-scholasticism was a distinct phenomenon, more intellectually homogenous and focused on the thought of Aquinas, in 19th-century Catholic thought.
Etymology
The terms "scholastic" and "scholasticism" derive from the Latin word , the Latinized form of the Greek (), an adjective derived from (), "school". , . Scholasticus means "of or pertaining to schools". The "scholastics", therefore, were roughly "schoolmen".
History
The foundations of Christian scholasticism were laid by Boethius through his logical and theological essays. Later forerunners (and then companions) to scholasticism were Islamic Ilm al-Kalām, meaning "science of discourse",Winter, Tim J. "Introduction." Introduction. The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. 4–5. Print. and Jewish philosophy, especially Jewish Kalam.Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Linda Gale Jones, Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, p. 391.
Early scholasticism
The first significant renewal of learning in the West came with the Carolingian Renaissance of the Early Middle Ages. Charlemagne, advised by Peter of Pisa and Alcuin of York, attracted the scholars of England and Ireland, where some Greek works continued to survive in the original. By a 787 decree, he established schools at every abbey in his empire. These schools, from which the name scholasticism derived, became centers of medieval learning.Colish, Marcia L. Medieval foundations of the western intellectual tradition, 400–1400. Yale University Press, 1999, 66–67
During this period, knowledge of Ancient Greek had vanished in the West except in Ireland, where its teaching and use was fairly common in its monastic schools. Irish scholars had a considerable presence in the Frankish court, where they were renowned for their learning. Among them was Johannes Scotus Eriugena (815–877), one of the founders of scholasticism.: "Abelard himself was ... together with John Scotus Erigena (9th century), and Lanfranc and Anselm of Canterbury (both 11th century), one of the founders of scholasticism." Eriugena was the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period and an outstanding philosopher in terms of originality. He had considerable familiarity with the Greek language and translated many works into Latin, affording access to the Cappadocian Fathers and the Greek theological tradition. Three other primary founders of scholasticism were the 11th-century archbishops Lanfranc and Anselm of Canterbury in England and Peter Abelard in France.
This period saw the beginning of the "rediscovery" of many Greek works which had been lost to the Latin West. As early as the latter half of the 10th century, the Toledo School of Translators in Muslim Spain had begun translating Arabic texts into Latin. After a successful burst of Reconquista in the 12th century, Spain opened even further for Christian scholars and, as these Europeans encountered Judeo-Islamic philosophies, they opened a wealth of Arab and Judaic knowledge of mathematics and astronomy.Grant, Edward, and Emeritus Edward Grant. The foundations of modern science in the Middle Ages: their religious, institutional and intellectual contexts. Cambridge University Press, 1996, 23–28 The Latin translations of the 12th century also included figures like Constantine the African in Italy and James of Venice in Constantinople. Scholars such as Adelard of Bath traveled to Spain and Sicily, translating works on astronomy and mathematics, including the first complete translation of Euclid's Elements into Latin.
At the same time, the School of Chartres produced Bernard of Chartres's commentaries on Plato's Timaeus and a range of works by William of Conches that attempted to reconcile the use of classical pagan and philosophical sources in a medieval Christian concept using the kludge of , treating the obviously heretical surface meanings as coverings disguising a deeper (and more orthodox) truth.. Abelard himself was condemned by Bernard of Clairvaux at the 1141 Council of Sens and William avoided a similar fate through systematic self-bowdlerization of his early work, but his commentaries and encyclopedic and were miscredited to earlier scholars like Bede and widely disseminated. Anselm of Laon systematized the production of the gloss on Scripture, followed by the rise to prominence of dialectic (the middle subject of the medieval trivium) in the work of Abelard. Peter Lombard produced a collection of Sentences, or opinions of the Church Fathers and other authorities.
More recently, Leinsle, Novikoff, and others have argued against the idea that scholasticism primarily derived from philosophical contact, emphasizing its continuity with earlier Patristic Christianity. This remains, however, a minority viewpoint.
High scholasticism
The 13th and early 14th centuries are generally seen as the high period of scholasticism. The early 13th century witnessed the culmination of the recovery of Greek philosophy. Schools of translation grew up in Italy and Sicily, and eventually in the rest of Europe. Powerful Norman kings gathered men of knowledge from Italy and other areas into their courts as a sign of their prestige. William of Moerbeke's translations and editions of Greek philosophical texts in the middle half of the thirteenth century helped form a clearer picture of Greek philosophy, particularly of Aristotle, than was given by the Arabic versions on which they had previously relied. Edward Grant writes "Not only was the structure of the Arabic language radically different from that of Latin, but some Arabic versions had been derived from earlier Syriac translations and were thus twice removed from the original Greek text. Word-for-word translations of such Arabic texts could produce tortured readings. By contrast, the structural closeness of Latin to Greek, permitted literal, but intelligible, word-for-word translations."
Universities developed in the large cities of Europe during this period, and rival clerical orders within the church began to battle for political and intellectual control over these centers of educational life. The two main orders founded in this period were the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The Franciscans were founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209. Their leader in the middle of the century was Bonaventure, a traditionalist who defended the theology of Augustine and the philosophy of Plato, incorporating only a little of Aristotle in with the more neoplatonist elements. Following Anselm, Bonaventure supposed that reason can only discover truth when philosophy is illuminated by religious faith.Hammond, Jay, Wayne Hellmann, and Jared Goff, eds. A companion to Bonaventure. Brill, 2014, 122 Other important Franciscan scholastics were Duns Scotus, Peter Auriol and William of Ockham.Evans, Gillian Rosemary. Fifty key medieval thinkers. Routledge, 2002, 93–93, 147–149, 164–169Gracia, Jorge JE, and Timothy B. Noone, eds. A companion to philosophy in the middle ages. John Wiley & Sons, 2008, 353–369, 494–503, 696–712
By contrast, the Dominican order, a teaching order founded by St Dominic in 1215, to propagate and defend Christian doctrine, placed more emphasis on the use of reason and made extensive use of the new Aristotelian sources derived from the East and Moorish Spain. The great representatives of Dominican thinking in this period were Albertus Magnus and (especially) Thomas Aquinas, whose artful synthesis of Greek rationalism and Christian doctrine eventually came to define Catholic philosophy.