In the middle ages 97

applications made by the scholastics, we must make

a twofold reservation. First, facts were studied

much more for the purpose of furnishing material

for philosophy than for their own sake; hence the

Middle Ages never recognized the distinction be-

tween common experience and scientific experi-

ment, which is so familiar to us. Second, this ma-

terial secured out of observation and experience,

represented a mixture, — a mixture of facts artifi-

cially obtained and of exact observation. The

former necessarily lead to erroneous conclusions,

examples of which we shall see later.-* The latter,

however, were adequate for establishing legitimate

conclusions.

Finally, the Aristotelian spirit appears also in

the inner articulation of philosophy itself. During

the first centuries of the Middle Ages the Platonic

division of philosophy into physics, logic, and ethics

had been in vogue ; and for a long time it persisted.

The thirteenth century definitely rejects it, or

rather absorbs it into new classifications. Com-

pared with Aristotle — the most brilliant teacher

whom humanity has known — Plato is only a

poet, saying beautiful things without order or

method. Dante was right when he called Aristotle

''the master of those who know/' But to know is

above all to order; sapientis est ordinare, — it is the

mission of the wise man to put order into his knowl-

edge. Even those who do not accept the ideas of

the Stagyrite acknowledge his kingship when it is

24 See ch. V, ii.

• •

98 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

a question of order or clearness. "Three-quarters

of mankind," writes Taine,"^ "take general notions

for idle speculations. So much the worse for them.

What does a nation or an age live for, except to

form them^ Only through them does one become

completely human. If some inhabitant of another

planet should descend here to learn how far our

race had advanced, we would have to show him our

five or six important ideas regarding the mind and

the world. That alone would give him the measure

of our intelligence." To such a question the scho-

lars of the Middle Ages would have replied by ex-

hibiting their classification of Icnowledge, and they

would have won glory thereby. Indeed, it consti-

tutes a remarkable chapter in scientific methodol-

ogy, a kind of "introduction to philosophy," to use

a modern expression. Whatever may be one's

judgment regarding the value of this famous classi-

fication, one must bow in respect before the great

ideal which it seeks to promote. It meets a need

which recurrently haunts humanity and which ap-

pears in all great ages : the need for the unification

of knowledge. The thirteenth century dreamed of

it, as Aristotle and Plato did in ancient times, and

as Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer have done

in our day. It is a splendid product of greatness

and power, and we sliall see in the chapters that

follow how closely bound up it is with the civiliza-

tion to which it belongs.

2' /y^ posiHviume anyhiis', Paris, 18()4, pp. 11, 12.

CHAPTER FIVE

Unifying and Cosmopolitan Tendencies

i. Need of universality; the "law of parsimony." ii. Excess

resulting from the felt need of simplifying without limit; the

geocentric system and the anthropocentric conception, iii.

The society of mankind {"universitas humana") in its theo-

retical and practical forms, iv. Cosmopolitan tendencies.

We have seen that there are two outstanding re-

sults of the various causes that make for the great

development of philosophy in the thirteenth cen-

tury. On the one hand, there is the great classifica-

tion of human knowledge, in which each science had

its own particular place — a pyramid of three stages,

or if one prefers the figure emploj^ed by Boethius/

a ladder for scaling the walls of learning. On the

other hand, among all the clashing systems which

rest upon that classification, there is one system of

thought which prevails, — that is scholasticism; and

it wins widest acceptance because it succeeds in re-

ducing to one harmonious whole all of the problems

and their solutions.

Bearing in mind these two great facts, we shall

1 Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, Lib. I, 1.

99

100 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

now proceed to show that they possess characteris-

tics which are found in every sphere of the Hfe of

the times; and, indeed, as will appear, they are in

organic connection with all the other factors of

mediaeval civilization.

There is one fundamental characteristic, appear-

ing in the scientific classification and the scholastic

philosophy, which is found everywhere; I mean the

tendency toward unity. The need of ordering

everything in accordance with principles of unity

and stabihty, the search for systems which extend

themselves over vast domains, is one of the con-

spicuous marks of a century which saw in the large,

and which acted on a broad plan. Wherever we

turn, we find a prodigious ambition of initiators

and everyone dreaming of universal harmony.

The policy of kings was filled with this ambition.

For, at this time, the feeling for unity began to

vivify great states such as France and England and

Germany and Spain. Now, this unity could not

be realized except by introducing principles of

order, which would bring under a common regime

social classes scattered over vast territories, and

previously subjected to local and antagonistic pow-

ers. The thirteenth century was a century of kings

who were all organizers, administrators, legisla-

tors ; they were builders of stability, who all mould-

ed their countries and their peoples: Philip Augus-

tus and Louis IX in France; Edward I in Eng-

land; Frederick II of Germany; Ferdinand III