In the middle ages 273

mission belongs to the social authority, whatever

may be the form of this authority. Following the

fine and judicious distinction of Thomas, one must

determine in varying circumstances, just what form

of government is most propitious to the realization

of its social mission.

Finally, like the state and the collective life, hu-

man civilization in its entirety is capable of prog-

ress; for it is the result of human activities which

are always perfectible. Education, heredity, the

influence of authority, can all act on the develop-

ment of the artistic faculties, of scientific labors, of

customs, of religious practice.

To sum up, then. Fixity of essences and essen- \

tial relations; act and potency; perfectibility of

faculties; liberty and adaptability of the collective

life to circumstances and needs, — these are the

principles by which scholasticism solved the prob-

lem of progress. They did so by answering in their

way the ancient Greek query: How reconcile the

fixed and the changing?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Philosophy and National Temperament in

THE Thirteenth Century

i. Scholastic philosophy reflected in the temperament of

the peoples who created it. ii. Three main doctrines: the

value of the individual; intellectualism ; moderation, iii.

Scholastic philosophy the product of Neo-Latin and Anglo-

Celtic minds; Germanic contribution virtually negligible, iv.

Latin Averroism in the thirteenth century, v. The lure of Neo-

Platonism to the German, vi. The chief doctrines opposed

to the scholastic tendencies: lack of clearness; inclination to

pantheism ; deductive method a outrance ; absence of moder-

ation.

Scholastic philosophy is the dominant philosophy

of the thirteenth century. Such is the outstanding

fact, the significance of which we have attempted

to estimate by correlating it with the other factors

of that civilization.

This philosophy is the result of a slow and pro-

gressive development, and it follows the general

trend of western civilization. The doctrinal fer-

mentation, rather slow in its beginning, becomes in-

tensified in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as

the social and political structure is taking its feudal

274

In the middle ages 275

form; and it reaches its most fruitful period just

as the distinctly mediaeval mode — of life and of

thought and of feeling — is revealing itself clearly

in every department of human activity. This great

philosophical system reflects the unifying tenden-

cies of the time; its influence is cosmopolitan; its

optimism, its impersonality, and its religious ten-

dencies place it in accord with the entire civiliza-

tion; and its doctrines exert a profound influence

on art and on literature and on social habits.

As scholastic philosophy is the work of western

races, it is likewise an original product. In it the

western peoples reproduce, to be sure, the prob-

lems of the Greek and the Oriental worlds. But

the solutions of these problems are cast in a new

mould, the}^ are imbued with a new mentality.

Herein lies the secret of the wonderful growth and

expansion of the scholastic philosophy in the West.

Seeing that the peoples of the West were con-

stantly preoccupied with it, there is little wonder

that this philosophy should have played a part in

moulding philosophical temperament ; that it should

have given them an intellectual bent, a specific turn

of mind. We need not be surprised then to find, —

in that unique period of history when the minds of

the various European peoples were taking on their

several casts, — the development of certain general

characteristics, whose influence survived in philos-

ophy after the thirteenth century, and even the

whole Middle Ages.

276 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

Economic forms, political organization, structure

of social classes, artistic culture, — these all disap-

pear, or are transformed ; indeed, by the end of the

fourteenth century, these elements of the civiliza-

tion have lost their distinctly mediaeval signifi-

cance. But moral and philosophical temperaments

endure, because they belong to the deeper lying

emanations of human spirit. In the individual

man, the bodily temperament, which depends upon

physiological conditions, persists throughout his en-

tire life. Similarly, in a group of individuals the

mental temperament, which finds its support in

common ideals, both intellectual and moral, sur-

vives in the race. Thus, the habits of honor and

courtesy, under the combined influence of Church

and feudal society, were transmitted through suc-

ceeding generations as staple realities, — which we

find even today in our modern conscience. In like

manner, the philosophical temperament of the

thirteenth century, — I mean the setting in opera-

tion of certain methods and doctrines — entered into

the modern epoch and even now directs our mode

of thought. Indeed, scholastic philosophy set in

operation three main doctrines, — which may also be

called methods — which have become our common

approach to problems and their solutions.

II

The first of these doctrines lays emphasis upon

the worth of the individual, or person, as the only