The Demise of Scholasticism

Essay on why the Scholastic-Aristotelian worldview remained popular

at universities until well into the eighteenth century.
Scholasticism was profoundly drenched in the Christian way of teaching, which was the dominant
institute that reigned over western universities. The dogmatic Christian way of thinking, which springs
from the undeniability of fact that a god created the universe, was well abled to use the strictly logical
approach of the Aristotelian school.

Scholasticism is more of a method of learning rather than a philosophy or theology. It places

importance on dialectical reasoning to expand knowledge through inference. Scholastic thought is
characterized by conceptual analysis and distinction-making. Whether in the classroom or in written
works, it commonly involves explicit debates: a topic from tradition is introduced as a question,
followed by opposing responses, arguments for alternative propositions, and refutations of opposing
arguments.

Because this way of thinking was so intertwined with the dominant religion and her sub-branches,
the process of overthrowing this established scholasticism wasn’t something that could just simply
spring about from the fact that some people found that a different approach could be more fruitful to
science.

I’m referring to the thinking of people like Francis Bacon, John Locke and David Hume, the ‘founding
fathers’ one could say of the school of thinking called British Empiricism. At the time they were
studying at university, the lessons were strictly Scholastic, based almost utterly upon the work
‘Organon’, constituted by the mind of Aristotle. However, among these gentlemen, a different
perspective arose to look at science.

While the approach during the lessons given at the universities like Oxford and Cambridge was purely
deductive, in other words, their logic was based on reason to find general laws applicable to the
world, the works of Newton and Galileo and others used a completely different method. Rather then
to deduce truths from general laws, they tried to inductively analyze connections in reality based on
observations about the world. Their approach to science was grounded in empirical evidence for
stating theory, unlike the purely upon reason based way of thinking characterized by the rationalism
of the preceding millennia. Because these two ways of logic are quite at odds with each other, Bacon,
among others, found it necessary to break away from established thinking.

The attack on scholasticism wasn’t solely a British phenomena. The seek for restoration of the
classical arts was faced with reluctance on the theological front, and in the aftermath of this disunity
the College de France was founded in 1530; A Parisian hallmark on the front of separation of religion
and science. Likewise in Germany, Martin Luther was advocating for secession, and the Reformation
heralded the end for the Scholastic school in the German academiae.

The war amongst the different Christian denominations turned late 16th and early 17th century Europe
in to a gory battlefield, and after almost a century of dispute and slaughter a gathering between
Catholic and Protestant representatives was held in 1644. A peace proposition, which included the
demand for religious tolerance, and abstinence from religion in politics was however turned down by
the pope.

The war did however come to an end, (except in Ireland as you might know), and in the aftermath of
the division, the doors that had been opened toward the Enlightenment and later on the revolutions
and their demand for secularization, the influence of Scholasticism eventually diminished to such
an extent that it was no longer the dominant established educational form from before.

Sources:

DONWAY, Walter, Scholasticism: How a Philosophical Monopoly Succumbs to New Ideas, July 19
2023, consulted on 02/03/2024, https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/reading-room/2023-07-19-
donway-scholasticism.

PIEPER, Josef, Scholasticism, consulted on 02/03/2024,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scholasticism.

SHAPIN, Steven, The Scientific Revolution, London, The university of Chicago Press, 2018