In the middle ages

85

VI

The second great fact resulting from the intel-

lectual life of the thirteenth century is the classifi-

cation of human knowledge. All of the philosophi-

cal systems, — not only the dominating or scholastic

philosophy, but also those anti-scholastic systems

with which it was in perpetual struggle and con-

tradiction — rested upon the conception of a vast

classification, a gigantic work of systematization,

the fruit of many centuries of speculation, and one

of the characteristic achievements of the mediaeval

mind. For more than a thousand years it has satis-

fied thinkers athirst for order and clarity. In what

does it consist?

One may compare it to a monumental structure,

to a great pyramid consisting of three steps, — with

the sciences of observation as the base, with philoso-

phy as the middle of the structure, and with theol-

ogy as the apex."* Let us consider each of these

in order.

1*" The general scheme is:

I. Particular sciences, such as botany, zoology, etc.

II. Philosophy. A. Theoretical a. Physics ,

b. Mathematics

c. Metaphysics

B. Practical a. Logic

b. Ethics •• .

c. Social and political p^hilosophy

C. Poetical

A. Doctrinal a. Scriptural (auctoritates)

b. Apologetical (rationes)

B. Mystical

III. Theology.

86 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

At the base are the natural sciences such as as-

tronomy, botany, physiology, zoology, chemistry

(elements), physics (in the the modern sense of

the word) ; and instruction in these precedes in-

struction in philosophy. In this there is a very in-

teresting pedagogical application of a ruling prin-

ciple in the philosophical ideology of the Middle

{Ages; that is that since human knov^ledge is con-

tained in the data of sensation, the cultivation of

the mind must begin with what falls under the ob-

servation of the senses; nihil est in intellectu quod

non prius fuerit in sensu.^^ But more especially

there is implied, in this placing of the experimental

sciences at the threshold of philosophy, a concep-

tion which inspires the scientific philosophies of all

times; namely, that the synthetic or total concep-

tion of the world furnished by philosophy must be

founded on an analy tic or de tailed conception

yielded by a group of special sciences. These lat-

ter study the world minutely; and for this reason

they are called special sciences. They investigate

the world in one domain after another; the phi-

losophers of the thirteenth century speak clearly

concerning this method- — the basis of the particu-

larity of a science.

In every science, say the scholars of the thir-

teenth century,^" it is necessary to distinguish the

15 See ch. VIII, i.

18 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., 1" q. I, arts. 1-3, passim;

Contra Gentiles, II, 4; Henricus Gandavensis, Summa Theolog., art.

7, q. I-VI.