Scholasticism as a Systematic European Philosophy of the Middle Ages

Barinova Svetlana Gennad'evna PhD in Philosophy Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Krasnoyarsk State Agrarian University 660049, Russia, Krasnoyarskii krai, g. Krasnoyarsk, peace Avenue, 90 svetabar2014@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Aristotle is the greatest encyclopedic mind of antiquity, made not only a huge contribution to European philosophy, but also a truly great contribution to the development of theological thought. Aristotle explored the material world, which was not the subject of Plato's philosophical analysis. And in the XI-XII centuries, the development of natural science knowledge was directly connected with the material world. In modern historical thought, there is an opinion that the development of natural sciences occurred during the Renaissance. But this is partly true. Many technical inventions, including, for example, a compass, a cannon, a mechanical watch, a glass mirror, a crankshaft, glasses, etc. were invented in the XII and XIII centuries. It was a period of technical discoveries and achievements. Another important point was the penetration of non–Christian Aristotelianism - averroism. Being an adherent of authentic Aristotelianism and having translated the works of Aristotle from the Syriac language, he interpreted the teaching through the concepts of Arabic philosophy. The clash with averroism that occurred during the Crusades in the Middle East and Spain took the form of a heretical doctrine. As a result, Christian adherents of Aristotelianism were forced to defend the doctrine, opposing heretical trends. And also to prove the usefulness of Aristotle's philosophy for Christian theology. Scholastic theology of the XI—XIII centuries was a kind of time flow. Plato's philosophical concept also found its continuation in scholasticism, expressed in the veneration of Plato by the famous classic of the scholastic Aristotelian movement Aquinas. But the main figure of authentic scholasticism was still Aristotle. His influence determined the scientific interest of the representatives of the golden age of Scholasticism in formal logical problems, reducing the purpose of intelligence to reasoning for the sake of reasoning. Which was later criticized by the scholastics themselves.

Aristotelianism, as well as Plato's philosophical teaching, became part of the Christian culture of that era. An important component of Aristotle's scholasticism was the openness of theology. At the same time, quite often the scholasticism of that period was attributed a mystical perspective. Moreover, there was a rash opinion that the scholastics did not adhere to the Christian doctrine, refused to venerate the Holy Scriptures, and referred exclusively to their own wisdom. However, such an incorrect judgment was refuted by the leading principle of the scholastic method, namely, reading the source, interpretation, discussion.

In the traditional philosophical understanding, scholasticism is inherent in the Western tradition and is incomprehensible to an Orthodox Christian and has no semantic meaning. This does not reflect the correctness of the understanding. The history of theology cites cases of the influence of Eastern theology on scholastic, as well as vice versa. A striking example of this is the Christian saint, revered in the face of the venerable, one of the Fathers of the Church, the theologian, philosopher and hymnographer John of Damascus. As the largest systematizer of Christian doctrine, he had a great influence on the development of Western scholasticism. An influence comparable to that of Aristotle. John of Damascus is rightfully considered the first theologian of scholasticism. Aristotle is an oriental, Greek thinker. Therefore, authentic scholasticism in its era acted as a method of theology. She used the fundamental principles of patristic theology, answering the questions of her time. Authentic scholasticism served the renewal of the church, not denying the theological ideas of previous years, but being the traditional theology of that era. But tradition in the best sense, that is, without going back to the past, without turning certain ideas into something immutable, unchangeable.

Authentic scholasticism included historical organicity, tradition and continuity. "The transition to high scholasticism of the XIII century was marked by the development of the corpus of Aristotelian 13 works and an alternative interest in Neoplatonism on the part of the emerging Order philosophical and theological schools" ^{[5, p. 148]}. If we analyze the entry of scholasticism into Russian theological thought, then the penetration of scholasticism occurred much later than it was in Western Europe. Russian Russian theology of that era did not fit into the borrowing of the discussed problems and did not meet the needs of the Russian Church. And school theology was perceived as something incomprehensible and unnecessary, causing rejection within the framework of the confrontation between East and West. But along with this, there was no other choice, and such an intellectual phenomenon as scholasticism penetrated into the Russian tradition. From the XV to the XVII century, scholastic theology continued to hold a dominant position. The XVII-XVIII centuries were marked by overcoming the crisis of Western scholasticism. The gradual overcoming took a long time, and the special influence of scholasticism continued to remain in moral theology. And the second half of the XVIII century in Russia is associated with a new trend in the formation of theological thought, including the work of Metropolitan Platon Levshin. His works revealed a new exposition of Orthodox dogmatics within the framework of scholasticism. At the same time, a philosophical and moral direction was given to such an exposition. The metropolitan's "Orthodox teaching" revived school theology and aimed to bring theology closer to life. At his insistence, new disciplines were introduced in theological schools, such as hermeneutics, canon law, church history, and moral theology. The deep meaning of his spiritual and educational activity was expressed in the systematization of theology, in the use of the best examples of patristic exegesis. This was the right direction of the Metropolitan's creativity and reflected the reaction to the spiritual and intellectual demands of modernity.

Considering scholasticism as a systematic European philosophy of the Middle Ages, it should be noted that its concentration took place around universities, and it was a combination of Christian theology with the philosophy of Aristotle.

The very term "scholasticism", derived from scholasticus, meant exactly the philosophy studied in the schools of the Middle Ages. The term, originally used as a noun, referred to teachers of several sciences in monastic schools founded by Charlemagne. At the same time, the term scholasticus was also applied to teachers of theology, and later it was used to designate everyone who was engaged in sciences, in particular, philosophy. Later, the term "scholasticism" began to be reproached by representatives of the new scientific direction, as well as scholastic philosophy was interpreted in a negative sense. Even Cicero, who studied Greek philosophy, was criticized, for which the Romans called him a scholastic who forgot about the importance of practical education. Currently, the term "scholasticism" is used not only in the sense of denoting medieval philosophy, but is also applicable to everything that is scientifically similar to scholasticism, which often carries a negative meaning.

Scholasticism, being a religious philosophy, applies philosophical concepts and techniques to the Christian-church doctrine, the early experience of which is contained in patristics. Assuming in this way to make the content of faith understandable to reason, scholasticism and patristics differ in that for patristics the content of faith was the Holy Scripture, and for the formulation of dogmas it applied philosophy. In Scholasticism, the content of faith consisted of dogmas established by the fathers, and philosophy was used to comprehend, substantiate and systematize these dogmas. There was no confrontation between scholasticism and patristics due to the fact that during the period of patristics, the gradual substantiation and systematization of dogmas was still carried out. So during Scholasticism, dogmatic teaching was not fully formalized and developed further. Scholastic philosophizing was based on the teachings of the church and the philosophical teachings of antiquity, which retained their significance until the Middle Ages.  Naturally, church teaching played a leading role, and the accompanying role belonged to philosophical tradition.  However, both theology and philosophy thought of God as one source of light, giving origin to both reason and revelation. Philosophy and theology even flowed into each other at the heyday of scholasticism, but at the end of the Middle Ages, philosophy separated from theology. This separation was justified. The basis of theology was divine revelation, and the basis of philosophy were naturally reasonable principles and proofs. Philosophy needs the assistance of supernatural revelation, it alone cannot satisfy the craving of our mind for the contemplation of God and eternal bliss. The Scholastics revered the thinkers of antiquity, believing that they had conquered the peak of natural knowledge. But at the same time, they argued that philosophers had not exhausted the permissible truth for man. And the advantage of theology over philosophy is seen in the fact that it has a higher principle of knowledge and higher truths, which the mind is not able to achieve independently. For the representatives of scholasticism, the revealed truths were the content of their systems, and philosophy was an auxiliary tool for the tasks of theology. Hence the well–known expression that "philosophy is the servant of theology." And this definition is certainly true, because philosophy gave a scientific form to theology, and theology received from philosophy the truths of reason, on the basis of which it was elevated to an understanding of the mysteries of Christianity. 

The impracticable desire of the church to carry out its principles to the masses was limited to the confrontation of secular and spiritual principles. Everything mundane seemed alien to the spiritual sphere, and therefore natural philosophical problems were not the subject of scholastic study. Attention was paid to the metaphysical analysis of questions about the world, the mystery of salvation, man, ethics. Detachment from the mundane and craving for the heavenly, the opposition of earthly and heavenly life, the upper and lower world. A similar confrontation is also present in the language sphere. The science taught in Latin belonged to the clergy, while poetry belonged to the laity. Therefore, poetry was devoid of reflection of scientific thinking and had an abstract property. Similarly, scientific thought was distinguished by the absence of any sensory-visual imagery.

Trying to give theology the status of a science, the scholastics were guided by the idea not only of the necessity of the existence of science, but also of its reasons for existence. Defining the content and activity in cognition, they compared them with the objective and subjective sides in faith.  The unchanging content of the Christian faith did not mean the constancy of the act and the ways of perceiving its content. For Scholastics, the definition of science is connected with substance as the content of faith. Substance as the first foundation, the first unprovable principles form the substance of science. The similarity of science and faith lies in their source, thought or idea in God. Science finds its realization if the spirit is likened to the content of knowledge.  Science directs its gaze to the general and necessary in things, but with its subject it distinguishes things that are conceivable through it.

The attitude of the Scholastics to wisdom was described by Bonaventure's vision in his essay "De reduction artium and theologiam". He formed the idea of a multitude of worlds, of sources of light and enlightenment. In the sensual world there are two sources of light that illuminate life. The first source makes a beneficial effect if a person influences things. The second source creates things that affect people by depicting forms materialized in nature. By analogy, this is the light of philosophical knowledge and the truth of salvation. The Upper Light is the light of Grace and Holy Scripture, standing above the inner light. The Scripture reveals the triple truth – faith, way of life and eternal bliss.  We turn to Augustine and Anselm for an explanation of faith. And the mystery of eternal bliss is comprehended in the works of Dionysius and Richard Saint Victor. The three areas of truth - speech, teaching, and the commandments communicated to us in Scripture, in the image and likeness determined the triplicity of philosophical teachings. Rational philosophy, natural philosophy and moral philosophy. The truth of speech, the truth of things, the truth of life and the correctness of the will. The Holy Scripture draws its formulations from all the stages of knowledge, since God is present in all of them. Scholasticism tends to wisdom, even subordinating science to it.

Scholasticism, as a religious philosophy, needed the development of theological thought and its development took place along with the development of theology. Studying the great ancient thinkers – Plato and Aristotle, the development of scholasticism has moved forward especially noticeably, which is reflected in the formation of scholastic metaphysics. "... the definition of 'scholastic' was applied to a set of methods of cognition based on theologically sound definitions and mainly deductive methods of inference." ^{[6, pp. 328-329]} If initially during the Middle Ages only "Timaeus" was known from all Plato's treatises, and from Aristotle's works – "Categoriae" and "De interpretatione". After all, the works of Aristotle underwent a more extensive translation and his teaching was presented in the translations of Boethius and Victorinus, he was learned from Porphyry's introduction to the works of Aristotle, then in the works of Marcian Capella, Augustine, Cassiodorus and from the treatises of Boethius to Aristotle and Porphyry. A small part of Aristotle's logical works were known at that time. Accordingly, the poor scientific material determined the ambiguous forging of philosophy in scholasticism. Until the XIII century, dialectics and logic played the role of metaphysics, for lack of anything else, metaphysical principles were extracted from it, but gradually the field of logic expanded and took a fundamental place in the hierarchy of sciences. In view of this, until the end of the XII century, the identification of logic with philosophy remained, and all the successors of Plato and Aristotle were considered logicians. But when Aristotle's metaphysics became famous, Albert the Great revived the essential difference between dialectics and metaphysics, and dialectics began to be understood as a stage towards the knowledge of truth. And then there is the question of universals, which was peculiar to Aristotle. Scholastic metaphysics took its first steps, and its next development was influenced by the writings of Aristotle and the metaphysical views of Augustine.

In relation to Aristotle, the ontology of the Scholastics is independent. The greatest theologian of the Middle Ages, Alexander Gales, rejects Aristotle's objections to Plato's ideas, but does not reject Aristotelian principles. Bonaventure expresses his opinion more categorically about Aristotle's denial of Platonic ideas, comparing it with Aristotle's immersion in Egyptian darkness. A representative of Eastern peripatetism and a supporter of authentic Aristotelianism, Averroes, explains creation as evolution, passive and active mind enlightened by the divine mind. On the contrary, Thomas Aquinas, without recognizing this teaching, gives a correct interpretation of Aristotle's thoughts, touching on the metaphysical side of the question.

If the early period of the emerging scholasticism is associated with the application of Aristotelian logic to the teaching of the church, then the later period of the development of scholasticism, up to the end of the Middle Ages, is associated with the predominant application of Aristotle's philosophy to church teaching. And the starting point in the formation of scholasticism is the interpretation of the views of ancient philosophers, given in the IX century by Eriugena. Moreover, the turning point in the expansion of knowledge of Aristotle's works was the Arabic translations of his texts. In the XIII century, Aristotelianism penetrates into Christian philosophy and the heyday of scholasticism begins. The scholastics turned their eyes to the ancient thinkers in order to establish Christian truth. Aristotle was presented to them as a universal thinker with a broad outlook, who achieved knowledge by the aspirations of reason. The similarity of Aristotle's organic worldview and the Christian understanding of the spirit and life turned out to be suitable for representatives of scholasticism, who noticed the similarity of Aristotle's teaching about the existence of God with the teaching of Holy Scripture. It is impossible to deny the connection of scholasticism with the educational system in the West that has been developing since the VIII-IX centuries. The main goal of university science at that time was the study and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and Sacred Tradition. Only those scientists who were connected with the church could interpret the works of the holy Fathers of the Church, in order to avoid spreading incorrect views about the Christian faith. Based on the defining task, the universities included two faculties – liberal arts and theology, with the first being the preparatory stage for the second. The period of the second Scholasticism, which is considered less studied, on the contrary, influenced the development of scholastic philosophy and theology in the universities of the XVI-XVIII centuries.

"Christian scholasticism, which originated in monasteries, cathedrals and private schools, takes the form of professional philosophy, which is the core of education. The development of ecclesiastical and secular schools and universities in the Middle Ages was literally permeated, imbued with scholasticism. The latter represented both the content of education and a set of methods of education. No less important is the fact that scholastic approaches to cognition assumed the systematic nature of the material transmitted through the school; it was they who made consistency a fundamental feature of educational and scientific activity. In the XII–XIII centuries, with the formation and development of universities, the scholastic paradigm will acquire the features of completeness, absorbing everything that we now call secondary and higher education" ^{[7, p. 35]}. With the development of universities, "scholasticism" can be understood as a doctrinal body, which is initially developed unorganically, and then more systematically in studio centers, where we sometimes find people who are creatively gifted, endowed with a critical mind, logical discipline and acute insight. The Trident Cathedral and the Jesuit Order founded in 1534 played a decisive role in the heyday of the second Scholasticism.

"It is within the framework of the Western Christian tradition that the scholastic educational paradigm has developed" ^{[1, p. 420]}. The crisis of Catholicism in the Western world, manifested in the XVI century, became a source of religious renewal. Namely, the reduction of church teaching, church policy and institutions of the church to the institutions of the clergy. The renewal stage is historically attributed to the Reformation and the widespread theses of Martin Luther. The establishment of theological educational institutions was the result of the Tridentine Council. Teaching philosophy as a stage of preparation for theology was an element of training in seminaries and Jesuit colleges. An essential feature of the second scholasticism was the development of thought schools. The intellectual heritage is distinguished by two schools – scoticism and Thomism. In Europe, Jesuit colleges and universities served as centers for the study of scholastic philosophy and theology. The scholasticism of the Jesuits developed until the XVIII century, when the "Society of Jesus" was liquidated. This was preceded by the expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil, Portugal, France, with the claim that Society acts like an autonomous power within states.

The post-Tridet scholasticism had an incomparable influence on Protestant (Bartholomew Kekkerman, Christoph Scheibler) and New European philosophy (Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Benedict Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, David Hume, etc.) During the decline of scholastic philosophy, which until the end of the XVIII century was formed in the Jesuit and Benedictine orders, began to gain momentum. Cartesian philosophy and Wolfianism. Thus, the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow used the course "Instructions of Philosophy" by the Cartesian philosopher Edmond Pourchot.

However, it would be wrong to give scholasticism and the Jesuit Order only a negative color. Especially the second scholasticism, which took shape mainly in Spain, Portugal, Italy and influenced even Western Russian thinkers of the XVII – early XVIII century. Not to mention its significant influence on the Catholic and Protestant world. The second scholasticism was the phenomenon, the study of which is not subject to the phenomena of time. The very revival of scholastic thought at the beginning of Modern times was the most important stage in historical and philosophical teaching. The movement within the Catholic Church, associated with the Reformation era, caused the emergence of a new Catholicism, which became a response to the spiritual demands of the New European society. The most important component of this movement was the second scholasticism, which deserves the definition of "philosophy of the Counter-Reformation". At that time, the second scholasticism covered many areas – theology, metaphysics, morality, law, social relations. And the fundamental role in the development of the second scholasticism is assigned to the Jesuit Order. The Jesuit Order strengthened its position after the completion of the Council of Trent. The Order, being a powerful intellectual and organized force of Catholicism, organically expressed the interests of the church. The Jesuit Order became the leading organization of Catholicism of the XVI century and a symbol of its renewal. Indeed, the creation of an effective education system and the highly intellectual activity of the Jesuits allowed the order to become the leading church organization of that era, leaving behind the rest of the ancient orders. The most prominent philosophers, theologians and preachers of the Jesuit Order laid the foundations of a new Catholicism, developing the doctrine of internal reform of the Roman Church. Their decisive role in the counter-reformation struggle, namely in the substantiation of its ideas and the creation of a peculiar form of scholastic philosophy, which subsequently determined the views of the philosophers of Modern times. Such a philosophical synthesis of the XVI century acquired the name - the second Scholasticism. The Society of Jesus answered the needs of that time, and the Catholic philosophy of the Counter-Reformation era turned out to be an important component of the history of Western thought. The transition from medieval philosophy to New European philosophy was a turning point marked by the internal reform of Western Christianity. The role in the development of Catholic philosophy of this period belonged to the Jesuits.