Part III. PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Chap. II. Scholastic Period

The second period of Christian philosophy, which extends from the ninth century to the fifteenth, is called the Scholastic period, so called because the monks were the chief scholars and the monasteries were the chief depositories of learning.

During the middle ages the continent of Europe was divided into a number of small states, feebly governed and often at feud with one another, over which the Roman hierarchy exercised universal sway. The chief power was ecclesiastical and not political. The Church was supreme, the arbiter in all disputes. In consequence of this religious autocracy life was corrupted and thought crippled. A spirit of despotism crushed intellectual activity. With the exception of a temporary revival of intellectual interest, consequent on the union of the empire under Charlemagne in the beginning of the ninth century, the earlier portion of the middle ages presents a dreary story of superstition, corruption, and mental torpor. The tenth century was a dark age in mediaeval history. In the eleventh the sky began to clear. The ecclesiastical reforms of Hildebrand, the renewed communication with the Greek empire through the crusades, where learning was still cherished, the intercourse with the Arabians in Spain among whom the sciences were cultivated—these were among the causes which stimulated philosophic thought.

The intellectual life of the middle ages is represented by Scholasticism, which is not to be regarded as a fixed doctrine or school like Platonism, but as a name which comprehends the philosophic endeavours of Christendom for nearly a thousand years. The Schoolmen were theologians, who prosecuted philosophy wholly in the interests of the Church, and whose aim was to reconcile faith and reason and to give to the dogmas of Christianity a scientific form.

The first impulse to Scholastic theology was given by Augustine, whose works directed and shaped theological thought, and long remained the authoritative source of doctrine. Side by side with the teaching of Augustine a Neoplatonic influence was exerted which took the form of Mysticism. Accordingly, Scholasticism and Mysticism supplement each other without being mutually exclusive. The one emphasizes more the doctrine of the Church; the other the conduct of the individual life. Along with these two tendencies a third characteristic of mediaevalism is to be noted—the secular interest in Greek and Roman literature, which languished during the earlier centuries, but revived with the introduction of the writings of Aristotle into the Christian schools through the medium of Arabian commentators.

While, therefore, Scholasticism is the general name given to the whole intellectual activity of the middle ages, these three features of it must be clearly distinguished— the theological, dealing with the dogmas of the Church; the mystical, having to do with personal piety; the classical or secular, relating to Greek philosophy.

The great philosophic problem which exercised the minds of the Schoolmen was that of Nominalism and Realism—an antithesis, the origin of which is to be found in the relation of Scholasticism to the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. The question as to whether universal notions have a substantial existence or whether they consist in bare intellectual concepts only was raised by a passage taken from the introduction to the Isagoge of Porphyry as translated by Boethius. The great battle over this problem, left undetermined by its author, was opened towards the close of the ninth century by John Scotus Erigena. But it is not till we come to the last years of the eleventh century that the strife became keen as between Roscellinus and Anselm. It continues throughout the whole course of Scholasticism, and is brought to bear on almost every question of life and ritual.

The Realists, following the teaching of Plato, held the existence of universal notions prior to concrete things in which they were embodied. The genus is the real, and is identical in all the individuals composing it. The Nominalists, on the other hand, maintained that universal notions were mere names, empty abstractions of the mind, without any objective reality. An intermediate theory, which sought to unite the two, called Conceptualism, was upheld by some, particularly by Abelard.

The spread of Scholastic philosophy was greatly helped by its teaching in the universities, which began to arise both on the Continent and in England about the beginning of the twelfth century. Paris became an important centre of erudition as well as Oxford. To these and the other seats of learning students streamed from all parts of Europe.

In the instruction of the schools and universities importance was attached as much to method as to matter. The logic of Aristotle was the instrument of discussion. The syllogism was the weapon of assault and defence. Every subject was taken up into the formal scheme of logic, with its premisses and conclusions—analysed and defined and argued with keen dialectic skill. Gradually the Schoolmen lost interest in the practical questions of faith and busied themselves with mere speculative abstractions and subtle logical puzzles. The whole Scholastic era naturally falls into two sections; the first being more under the influence of Plato, the second of Aristotle.

The first period extends from the rise of Scholasticism to Alexander of Hales, who was the earliest Schoolman to make use of the other works of Aristotle besides the Logic. The second section begins with the thirteenth century, during which Aristotle rather than Plato dominates and shapes philosophic thought.