Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Scholasticism
/skəˈlæstɪsɪzəm/noun
The theological and philosophical method of the medieval universities.
The Greek roots
σχολή
scholḗ
leisure, study
σχολαστικός
scholastikós
devoted to study
Literally: “the way of those at leisure to study”
The story of the word
Σχολή meant leisure first, then leisure spent on study, then the place where that happened, so school is literally free time. A σχολαστικός was a man with the leisure to learn, and in later Greek the word could slide into pedant. Scholasticism names the university method of question, objection and reply that produced Aquinas, and the label was spread mainly by its enemies, who used it to mean hair-splitting.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
schoolscholarscholium
In a sentence
The seminar traced scholasticism from Abelard to the Spanish Jesuits.