The Lost Science of Scholasticism - Eliza Colbert
The scholasticism of the Middle Ages is a lost art, or rather a lost science. Reading through Aquinas’ logical arguments reminded me of how no one really does that anymore. People do not sit around asking if it is just to use ambushes in war or whether words in Scripture can have multiple meanings. They no longer spend their time in intellectual discussions about the minutest details of their beliefs. Now, people will argue about their beliefs all day, writing angry Facebook posts or virtually shouting in the comment section. But they don’t ask why they believe that. They don’t go through their beliefs logically and figure out as best they can why they think the world is the way it is.
I think part of the reason for this is that the scholastics of Medieval times already did a lot of the work for us. Aquinas wrote a thousand plus page book about many of these questions. The reasons have already been discussed and the beliefs have been proved. But people don’t read these books anymore. So why do we accept our beliefs without question? Precisely because these books were written. The beliefs have already been established as logical and factual. Over the generations, people have stopped questioning and just accepted as fact these beliefs because people like Aquinas had already written books about it. Eventually, we get to the modern generation, where people accept what they believe without even bothering to read the works of those who have already thought about it. But, even though the scholastics have already worked out why Christians believe a lot of what they do, I think we shouldn’t just rely on their words. We should ask ourselves why we hold so strongly to our beliefs. We should go through what we believe logically. We should rediscover the lost science of scholasticism. Just as the unexamined life is not worth living, the unexamined belief is not worth holding.
P.S. I commented on Osten’s and Abbigayle’s posts.
Okay, Descartes. ;) There is something to be said for hitting "faith crises" and reevaluating the reason you believe in God. It is awesome if you never have one of those, but also somewhat unrealistic. Eventually, I think everyone goes through a period of doubt, whether they are conscious of it or not.
ReplyDeleteI found this week's reading to be quite refreshing. I enjoy logical arguments, and I think society has lost the value in systemic reasoning. Most people care more about quick facts than a lengthy argument.
I had one of Sophia's "faith crises" once... As a result, I converted.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with examining your beliefs is that, well... they might turn out to be wrong, and then you could possibly feel compelled to admit your mistake and change them. We don't want to change, though, we want to be right and we want other people to change to fit our truth--hence the Facebook rants that demonstrate, in real time, people entrenching themselves deeper and deeper in their pre-held beliefs with every outraged word. First-world society has made man comfortable and privileged. Nobody wants to get up off the couch and start exercising their minds because they can get away with doing nothing; "Let the scientists, scholars, and politicians think for us," they say, "as discovering knowledge is their job, not mine." I think we need a few gadflies, if I'm perfectly honest...
I love these types of arguments. I agree with the fact that no one likes to just sit around and argue the details anymore. When it does happen it is very rare and great. I think one of the reasons is that people do not like to question and think deeply about their beliefs anymore and think deeply about how it applies to their life. They just like to believe what they believe and then get on with their lives because if they actually question what they believe it could turn out to be false. The another reason is people now associate argue negatively. You have something against that person personally if you disagree with their beliefs and it is a personal attack. Honestly why I like Honors so much is the in-depth discussion and arguments we have without getting personal.
ReplyDeleteIt's misleading to say that "people" don't analyze their beliefs anymore because they never did. Thorough scholarship has always been limited to a tiny minority with the time and interest to engage in it. Aquinas was never the norm. There's little incentive for most people to devote the massive quantity of time required to adequately research and scrutinizing their beliefs, although modern, developed countries have larger proportions of educated, informed, and interested people than any other time in human history.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the work is done is not responsible for intellectual laziness. It's not like most 13th century Italian peasants were keeping up with philosophy and read the Summa and decided that philosophy was over, and that's the reason we don't read philosophy today. I don't think that the Scholastic works have anything to do regular people accepting their beliefs without question. That's just something people have done since the beginning of time. Besides, lots of this stuff is controversial even in Christian circles.