Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Definition of Scholasticism

...from whence the word "scholarship" and "scholar" derives...

Scholasticism originally meant someone in the high middle ages who mixed Aristotle with Christianity.  Clergy like the metaphysics of Aristotle because it conceived of a fixed universe where everything had a particular "telos" or meaning for existing, and Thomas Aquinas began a culture of using reason to defend one's religion.

Over time, scholarship tended to take a particular form of writing or speech.  What you would do is to take snippets of scripture and/or philosophy that seem to contradict each other, and use research and logic to prove that they really agree, thereby affirming the sensibility of one's world, mind, and religion.

Sources
Lawrence Cahoone.  Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida.  Lecture 2.  Scholasticism and the Scientific Revolution.
Philip Daileader.  High Middle Ages.  Lecture 14.  The Origins of Scholasticism.