The Scholastic philosophy Is a philosophical and theological current that prevailed in the Western Europe of the Middle Ages, from the year 1100 to 1700 and represented a reconciliation with the ancient philosophers.
The term 'Escolásticos' comes from the Latin 'cholasticus' and from the Greek 'cholastikos' which means to devote free time to learning.
It was a mixture between pagan wisdom (of which Aristotle and Plato were its chief representatives) and revealed wisdom, which were the teachings of the church and the writings of the Fathers of the Church.
On the other hand, some historians have defined it as a method of teaching with an emphasis on dialectical or spoken reasoning, used in medieval universities and cathedrals from the 12th to the 16th centuries.
Scholastic Philosophy tries to organize the questions that during the previous years were the philosophers and to answer them in a logical and comprehensible way for the humanity from the learning by the experience.
This philosophy feeds on several sciences such as logic, psychology, ethics and metaphysics, as it takes approaches from each of these areas to arrive at the answers it seeks to find.
Basic Characteristics of Scholastic Philosophy
- They accepted the ideas and postulates of orthodox Catholicism that was predominant at the time.
- They approved of Aristotle's proposals as the greatest call for authority to validate the ideas proposed by Christianity.
- They recognized the academic differences between Aristotle and Plato after the division of their paths by the different ideologies and defined them as the main subjects to be treated.
- They gave prominence to dialectical or spoken thinking and reasoning, which was composed of two prepositions as premise and a conclusion called also syllogistic reasoning.
- They accepted the difference between natural theology and revealed theology.
- Treat each subject in detail and meticulously and usually with word games or paradoxes simulating the explanatory writings of Jesus Christ in the bible.
Historical background
To reach scholastic philosophy it is necessary to know the Aristotelian principles. The most important of these principles is the idea of being and understanding of what things are composed, or more modernly, what the nature of things is.
The science gave an answer to this approach indicating that the things are made of atoms that organized in blocks they give shape to each one of them, besides giving its characteristics of identification.
However, the philosopher and thinker always refused to accept this approach because it said that all things are made of a substance that is the basis of energy. He considered that before defining a thing by the parts that compose it, it should be defined as a whole. Like people should be defined as human beings rather than their characteristics.
The substance that is the basis of all things according to Aristotle. It is called the primary mode of being since it considers that substance is the most accurate way to speak of being as an existing entity in the world.
This is a concept out of rationality and logic, so Aristotle calls substance to things like the gender of a person or animal. With this approach he is closer to Plato's approaches before moving away.
Accidents of Aristotle
Among his statements, Aristotle spoke about the concept of accident, which refers to the details that change in each of the beings such as fattening or slimming for a person.
Physical changes that affect the image but do not change the person, regardless of their weight will remain who it is. Then it is an accident because the human or animal changes its characteristics but it is not the same being.
Based on this concept of accidentality, scholastic philosophy exposed the concepts of potentiality and actuality that are the basis of the cosmological test theory with which Aquinas proves the existence of God. Therefore the understanding of these concepts is fundamental for both scholastic and Christian philosophers.
Potentiality and current affairs
For the scholastics, the potential of each person is in the decisions he makes of his actions. But God has all his potential in the power he exercises over the world.
Potentiality allows man to make decisions about a given time. You only have control of the future, since the past is unchangeable. That is, a person can decide whether to cross a street in the second one or wait for the traffic light to change and cross in the second two.
Once you have made that decision you can not change it because the time has already advanced and can not be returned. I could change the decision for the next few seconds, but not for the past. Even if he had not decided, he would have potentialized his time without it being changed.
However, this same form of potentiality does not apply to God, since he is out of time and the decisions he makes or the changes he makes can change the course of life of any human being. God could make the decision to do something that affects the normal course the world takes for the actions that people have decided to do.
To give an explanation for this, the Scholastics indicated that God has an intellect and a will that are updated over time and that are potential for all eternity.
Based on these concepts, Spinoza questions the omnipotence of God, since he considers that during eternity he will be able to make the decisions that he prefers. Therefore it would not really have power since, according to the Scholastics, power is identified as potentiality. They also consider that the power of God is limited by contradiction because they consider that he can do nothing contradictory.
Aristotle also presented an approach on the concept of potentiality and summarized it as the possibility that each thing has to be done or not. But for Aristotle the possibilities are all different since some are really possible and some are not.
Empowerment requires a positive attitude to affect the facts of the future positively and it is necessary to take into account also the ability of each person to do some things.
Scholastic problems
The scholastic philosophers tried to solve problems like faith, reason, will, realism and intellect, but mainly they wanted to give an answer about the existence of God. This was always the most important of their concerns.
Scholastic knowledge starts from the senses and, as such, was taught in the most outstanding European universities, where the intellectual development of students developed from the simple knowledge of the senses, which creates a gap between modern philosophy And the contemporary.
Schools of scholastic philosophy had two methods of teaching. One was responsible for reading the texts by the teacher, but students were not allowed to ask questions. This lectuara was called 'the lectio'.
The second method of teaching, which also represented a problem, was the so-called 'disputatio'. The students proposed a discussion question and the teacher, based on different texts as the Bible should answer the questions raised.
In the middle of the discussion the debate was allowed and one of them took notes to have a summary of what was said. But because the subject was proposed at the beginning of the class, there was no time to document not prepare the answers or delve into the subject.
Theological Summation
The Theological Summation Is the most representative and famous treatise of scholastic philosophy. It is divided into three parts and these in turn have subdivisions. It was written by Thomas Aquinas, who was based on the doctrines of the church to deepen the philosophy and thus to prove the reasonableness of the Catholic faith.
The most successful point of scholasticism was in the thirteenth century and was led by Thomas Aquinas himself with the treaty Theological Summation .
This takes its referent of Aristotelian ideas fused with Catholicism, creating an intermediate point between the dialectic and the so-called blind study of texts such as The Bible or the same Theological Summation . That is to say the possibility of the students to follow the texts to the letter of the letter or to generate discussions and analyzes around them.
Thomas Aquinas was one of the most important scholastics in history. It was Italian but received a strong influence from the barbarians who arrived from the north to its native city, these were turning to Christianity but also took all their culture.
They incorporated in the villages a foreign language and different ways of thinking, there was generated one of the main problems that was faced in the Middle Ages philosophy.
Therefore, scholastic writings lack immediateness and leave little room for originality. Because of this, the Scholastics were simply referred to as a school of special learning methods, closely related to traditional methods.
Influence
The scholastic philosophers have an important influence of the philosophy of Aristotle and is reflected in all their works. Saint Thomas Aquinas uses the metaphysics of which Aristotle himself speaks to explore the world, from the nature of man to the nature of God.
The substance and accidents of Aristotle are important agents forming within the idea of the Christian metaphysics and of course the understanding of it. But it was really, through the influence of Aristotle, that philosophers learned to seek wisdom from the intellect and education, leaving the imagination second.
The knowledge of the scholastic philosophy was based on rationality, without leaving aside the sensations and the learning that comes from them. The idea of actuality and potentiality are manifested within the chance and the creation of the universe.
Scholastic philosophy has been governed by the rule that once thought and expressed remain present and meaningful over time. The intellectual achievements of the Middle Ages are above the established rules although, they go unnoticed or they do it anonymously.
Finally, scholasticism did not die in the E Media continued with the philosophers during decades of study and learning until leaving an indelible mark in the history of the philosophy and documents that at the moment are base of study in faculties of theology and philosophy of the whole world.
Some concepts were misinterpreted in the midst of Christian schools, by the common or popular use of scholastic philosophy, which led to so-called arid verbalism. That is, a system of closed thinking that forced students to memorize even without understanding and reciting texts automatically.
For the accuracy of the scholastic philosophy it is necessary to use the technical vocabulary that used abstract terminology, this one was created with the intention of understanding the nature of the reality from the facts lived and the experience that each individual lived.
Although the traditional system received constant criticism and re-evaluations, it had new developments in different areas.
Scholastic thinkers left humanity a great deal of ideas in different areas. They also left the lesson of the unity of all their followers for a common goal: the integration of knowledge that until today is still paramount in universities and study centers.
Undoubtedly, this is one of the most momentous influences in history from which countless academic discussions emerge.
The schools of thought have grown and evolved through the scholastic writings and their teachings, since it is a time of history that will always be basic in academic and religious education centers.
References
- An Introduction to Scholastic Philosophy, S.M. Miranda (2001).
- New Catholic Encyclopedia, (2003), The Gale Group.
- On Philosophy, Power And Omnipotence, Spinoza And The Scholastics, (May 4, 2007).
- New Advent Encyclopedia, Kevin Knight, (2012) Ulster University.
- BELIEVE Religious Information Source, (1997), James A. Weisheipl, Editor of BELIEVE.
- The basic of Philosophy, Luke Mastin, (2008).
- Science of Conjecture, Johns Hopkins University Press, (June 2001), academia.edu page.
- New World Encyclopedia, Written by online collaboration with certified experts, (2016), Paragon House Publishers.