scholasticism

The theological and philosophical systems and methods taught in the schools of medieval Europe, especially in the 12th–14th centuries. Scholasticism tried to integrate orthodox Christian teaching with Aristotelian and some Platonic philosophy. The scholastic method involved surveying different opinions and the reasons given for them, and then attempting solutions of the problems raised, using logic and dialectic.

The 9th-century Platonist Johannes Scotus Erigena is sometimes regarded as an early scholastic. But scholasticism began at the end of the 11th century, when Roscellinus, a supporter of nominalism, and Anselm, a supporter of realism, disputed the nature of universals. In the 12th century, the foundation of universities in Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge, and the recovery of Greek philosophical texts, stimulated scholasticism. Notable scholastic philosophers, or ‘schoolmen’, as they were called, are William of Champeaux, Peter Abelard, the English monk Alexander of Hales (died 1222), Albertus Magnus, and Peter Lombard.

The most important are, in the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas, whose works became classical texts of Catholic doctrine, and the Franciscan Duns Scotus; and in the 14th century William of Occam, who was the last major scholastic philosopher.

In the 20th century there has been a revival of interest in scholasticism through the writings of the French philosopher Jacques Maritain and other Catholic scholars.