In the middle ages 53

ology, should suffice to do justice in the matter.

This consideration should relieve the philosophy of

the Middle Ages of that grave contempt which has

weighed upon it so long, — a contempt resting upon

the belief that it had no raison d'etre, no proper

method, no independence!

To say that philosophy, by the twelfth centuryll

had become clearly distinguished from the liberal

arts on the one hand and from theology on the

other hand, is to recognize that its llimits were

clearly defined and that it had become conscious of

itself. Now this great first step-in organization

had been made simultaneously by other sciences as

well, and they were thus all given independence,

though in different degrees. For example, there

was the development in dogmatic theology, which

progressed rapidly, as we have just said, and

spread widely in the great schools of Abaelard, of

Gilbert de la Porree, of Hugo of St. Victor, and

of Peter Lombard. It appeared also in the liberal

arts, of which one branch or another was more espe-

cially studied in this school or that; for example,

grammar at Orleans and dialectics at Paris. It

was evidenced, moreover, in the appearance of

medicine, as a separate discipline, and especially of

civil (Roman) and canon law. Thus the impor-

tant mental disciplines, on which the thirteenth

century was to thrive, had asserted their indepen-

dence and intrinsic worth.

These demarcations, which seem to us so natural

54 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

and matter of course, have come at the cost of great

effort in every period of history which has attempt-

ed their estabhshment — and necessarily so. Thus

the first Greek philosophers encountered the same

difficulty in this regard as did the scholastics of the

twelfth century. Even today, when classification

is so far advanced, discussions arise in fixing the

limits of new sciences ; witness the example of soci-

ology. But this delimitation of philosophy in the

twelfth century was only one aspect of a rapidl}'

developing civilization. Do we not see a similar

movement in the political, the social, the religious,

and the artistic life? The royal prerogatives, the

rights and duties of vassals, the status of the bour-

geoisie and of the rural population, the distinction

between temporal charge and spiritual function o*f

abbots and prelates, the monastic and episcopal

hierarchy, the clear establishment of new artistic

standards, — all of these are features of an epoch in

process of definition. The chaos and the hesitation

of the tenth and the eleventh centuries have disap-

peared. The new era exhibits throughout a sense

of maturing powers.

Ill

We may now penetrate more deeply, and con-

sider the mass of philosophical doctrines which is-

sued out of the efforts of the twelfth century. As

one does this, one cannot help noting how the chief

doctrines of the developing metaphysics harmo-