An Introduction to Scholastic Philosophy

Originally published under the title: 'Scholasticism Old and New' In this corrected edition of a standard work, Professor Maurice de Wulf, great authority on medieval philosophy, examines the scholastic tradition. After a careful and discriminating examination of the true nature and definition of scholasticism, in which he sifts modern interpretations and misinterpretations of the scholastic spirit, he analyzes the scholastic method, scholastic philosophy in its relations to medieval philosophy in general as well as to ancient philosophy and medieval science; scholastic metaphysics, theodicy, general physics, celestial and terrestrial physics, psychology, moral philosophy and logic. The decline of medieval scholasticism is then treated. Examination is not so much in terms of individual thinkers, as is usual in histories of philosophy, as in terms of a philosophia communis of the scholastic tradition. The second part of this work examines the modern scholastic revival, with a discussion of the relations of neoscholasticism and neothomism to history of philosophy, religion, and modern science; and an examination of the neoscholastic doctrines. Considerable information is included on the neoscholastic estimation of various trends in modern philosophy. Written by one of the very greatest historians of medieval philosophy, this book is useful both as a corrective to earlier histories and as an excellent expoisition and evaluation of the scholastic position.