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Scholasticism definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SCHOLAS'TICISM, n. The method or subtilties of the schools.
The spirit of the old scholasticism, which spurned laborious investigation and slow induction -

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the system of philosophy dominant in medieval Europe; based on Aristotle and the Church Fathers
2: orthodoxy of a scholastic variety [syn: scholasticism, academicism, academism]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: circa 1782 1. capitalized a. a philosophical movement dominant in western Christian civilization from the 9th until the 17th century and combining religious dogma with the mystical and intuitional tradition of patristic philosophy especially of St. Augustine and later with Aristotelianism b. neo-scholasticism 2. a. close adherence to the traditional teachings or methods of a school or sect b. pedantic adherence to scholarly methods

Britannica Concise

Theological and philosophical movement, beginning in the 11th cent., that sought to integrate the secular understanding of the ancient world, as exemplified by Aristotle, with the dogma implicit in the revelations of Christianity. Its aim was a synthesis of learning in which theology surmounted the hierarchy of knowledge. Principal figures in early Scholasticism were P. Abelard, St. Anselm of Canterbury, St. Albertus Magnus, and R. Bacon. The movement flourished in the 13th cent., drawing on the writings and doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas. By the 14th cent. Scholasticism was in decline, but it had laid the foundations for many revivals and revisitations in later centuries, particularly under Pope Leo XIII (1879), who sought to modernize the insights of the medieval scholastics. Modern philosophers influenced by Scholasticism include J. Maritain and É tienne Gilson (1884-1978).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Scholasticism Scho*las"ti*cism, n. The method or subtilties of the schools of philosophy; scholastic formality; scholastic doctrines or philosophy. The spirit of the old scholasticism . . . spurned laborious investigation and slow induction. --J. P. Smith.