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Western Philosophy and Theology in the Thirteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Maurice De Wulf
Maurice De Wulf
Affiliation:
Poitiers, France
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Extract

In regard to Western scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages, every one repeats the laconic judgment, that it is “philosophy in the service, under the sway and direction, of Catholic theology.” It could be nothing else; and it seems that one has said everything after announcing this clear-cut formula. This current definition, susceptible of the most different meanings, is found on the first page of a recent book, published during the War, on the philosophy of the Middle Ages; and though the author gives a very mild interpretation of it, it is offered to the reader as an abridged thesis, in which one finds condensed all that is important to know on the subject. “Scholasticism is Philosophy placed at the service of already established ecclesiastical doctrine, or at least philosophy placed in such a dependence on this doctrine that it becomes an absolute Rule when both meet on common ground.”

Now this current definition of scholastic philosophy in the Middle Ages defines it very badly, because it is a mixture of the true and the false, of accuracy and of inaccuracy. It must be distrusted, like those equivocal maxims which John Stuart Mill calls “sophisms of simple inspection,” which by force of repetition enjoy a kind of transeat or vogue in science without being questioned.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , October 1918 , pp. 409 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1918

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References

1 Dr. Mathias Baumgartner. Friedrich Ueberwegs Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Teil, Zweiter. Die mittlere oder die patristische und scholastische Zeit. 10te aufl., Berlin, 1915.Google Scholar

2 “Die scholastik ist die Philosophie im Dienste der bereits bestehenden Kirchenlehre oder wenigstens in einer solchen Unterordnung unter dieselbe diese auf gemeinsamen Gebiete als die absolute Norm gilt.” P. 196. It represents the first and the general judgment of Baumgartner.

3 “Ad istas tres scientias (phisica, theologia, scientia legum) paratæ sunt tanquam vise septem liberales artes que in trivio et quadrivio continentur.” Cod. Q. VI, 30. Grabmann. Die Gescbichte der scholastischen Methode. 1909. Bd. II, p. 39.

4 Mâle, E., L'art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France. Etude sur l'iconographie et sessources d'inspiration. Paris, 1910, p. 112 et suiv.Google Scholar

5 De divina prædestinatione, I, 1 (Patrol, lat. t. 122, 357–358).

6 Grabmann. Op. cit., I, 191. Cod. XII, 1. No. 14401.

7 De divina omnipotentia, c. 5 (Patr. lat. t. 14, c. 603).

8 Summa theologica, 1a Pars, q. I, Art. 1.

9 Summa theologica, Art. VII, q. 1, Nos. 10–13.

10 Tribbechovius, De doctoribus scholasticis et corrupta per eos divinarum humanarumque rerum scientia. Giessen. 1665.

11 I am preparing a new book on the sociological character of the mediæval philosophy. It will be a complement to my Histoire de la Philosophie Médiévale, of which subsequent to the English translation (Longmans, 1909) a fourth French (1912), a German (1913), and an Italian edition (1914) have been issued.

12 Luchaire, Histoire de France, publiée par Lavisse, T. III, p. 318.

13 “Ad secundum dicendum quod hæc scientia accipere potest aliquid a philosophicis disciplinis, non quod ex necessitate eis indigeat, sed ad majorem manifestationem eorum quæ in hac scientia traduntur.” (Ia, I, a, 5.)

14 “Supposito quod hinc scientiæ non subjacet nisi verum … supposito quod quæcumque vera sunt judicio et auctoritate hujus scientiæ … his inquam suppositis, cum ex eis manifestum sit quod tam auctoritas hujus scientiæ quam ratio … veritati innititur et verum vero contrarium esse non potest, absolute dicendum quod auctoritati hujus scripturæ ratio nullo modo potest esse contraria.” S. Theol. X, 3, No. 4.

15 Chartularium Univers. Parisiensis, ed. Denifle et Chatelain, I, 499.

16 The Mediæval Mind. C. II, chapter 35.

17 Even Mr. Henry O. Taylor recognizes that scholastic philosophers are devoted to the pursuit of knowledge for itself. Besides the joy of working for their salvation they have the joy of study. Men like Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas, could not have done what they did, says he, without the love of knowledge in their souls.