Madrasa and university were very important education places for Islamıc and Christian world. In these schools, scholasticism was effective. They believed that there is no new knowledge main purpose of education is a preservation of knowledge. In this time period, there are some departures from Aristotle and the new notion emerged. In the 16th century, skepticism emerged as a movement, after then empiricism and rationalism emerged as a solution.
In Eurasia, there were two kinds of schools which offer higher education: Madrasa is for Muslim and University is for Christian. The first madrasa was established by Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mülk in the 11th century. To register to the madrasa, the requirements were an ability to read Arabic and Quran, despite this, there was not an age requirement. In the madrasa, there wasn’t any certain curriculum. It depends on to professor or manager of vaqf. But mainly, composition, rhetoric, philosophy theology, tafsir, fıqh, and hadith were preferred to teach. Madrasa’s students were not stable for one madrasa, they always went around and itinerant. And at the end of their education, they had taken diplomas (ijaza) which is from a particular professor for a particular subject. On the other hand, in the Christian world, there were universities for higher education. First universities were established in Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge. In the university, there were two stages. Firstly, there is a Bachelor to teach Arts Faculty. After the Bachelor graduation, students could choose to continue with Master which had taught theology, or Doctorate which had taught law and medicine. University’s requirements were similar to Madrasa’s, there wasn’t age requirement but differently Latin was a necessity. University had taken money, because of those generally wealthy people registered. To contrary, methods of both, university and madrasa were the same, scholastic method which purposes to preserve knowledge. According to this approach, there is no new knowledge, all knowledge was discovered. The scholastic method includes reading outlet, explaining what it means and summarize the whole text.
Scholasticism was effective in Christian and Muslim worlds. Founder of Christian scholastics was Thomas Aquinas. They support to adapt the works of Averroes to Christianity. In 1277, The Condemnation of 1277 was published. It based on the Aristotle himself, not interpretation of Averroes; this was the end of the Averroism. Later with William Ockham, some reactions to 1277 have occurred. This was breaking from Aristotelianism, the belief of multiple universes emerged. According to Ockham, in philosophy, everything can understand differently from the different person so what we use for philosophy, it is just a name (nomalism). Muslim scholasticism was founded by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. Similar to Christian scholasticism, al-Razi tried to adapt Avicenna to Islam. On the other hand, there are some differences. Muslim scholasticism is part of the Kalam and Kalam includes lots of discipline, theology institutionalize at the 15th century. However, Christian scholasticism is independent, theology includes a small amount of subject and it institutionalizes at the beginning. Modern theology refers to Post-Avicennian theology and has the Neo-Platonic approach. In this time, there were theological commentaries which were a way of disagreement. Generally, each phrase was explained. In Christian scholasticism, a commentary has six parts; question, against argument, opposite argument, clarification of the question, author’s main argument and refutation.
There were some separations from Aristotle like Impetus Theory. According to Aristotle, to move and stop something, air is a necessity. But John Philoponus did not agree on this idea because he thought that if air were motive, then we could move a stone by blowing on it. Similarly, Avicenna was against it by defending a self-dissipating force. Jean Buridan follows and agrees with Avicenna and departs from Aristotle. The Oxford Calculators and Nicole Oresme studied on the motion. By investigation motion arithmetically, Mean Speed Theorem was founded.
At the 14th century, Renaissance, which refers rebirth of the classical world, started in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe. Humanism was the crucial idea. They departed from Scholasticism which means saying what authorities said and started to do what authorities did. But Aristotle was still important for natural philosophy. At university, they interested in what he said. Moreover, some humanistic commenters interested in his method especially his observation and logic. In Italian universities, humanistic interpretation of Aristotle was studied for the first time. People started to read Aristotle’s original Greek text instead of reading Averroes. Differently, from scholastic and humanistic commenters, there were some occult philosophers who interested Platonism, Pythagoreanism, Hermeticism, and magic. Platonism and Pythagoreanism by using mathematics, Hermeticism by using chemistry and alchemy, they tried to discover the secret of nature. For Platonism and Pythagoreanism, the main purpose is searching mathematical thing and formal structure of the world like Golden Ratio. They differentiate to Aristotle’s “God is a part of the universe” notion and claim that the universe is ensouled. Marcilio Ficino and Copernic was the proponent of it. Furthermore, Hermeticism based on Hermes Trismegistus’s notion of who was an ancient Greek wise. Alchemy was the most important space to investigate. They tried to turn baser metals into gold in their laboratory.
Skepticism based on Socrates’ phrase: “All I know that I know nothing”. It shaped with the Pyrrhonian idea that reason and senses are not trustable. In the 16th century, skepticism emerged as a movement. Michel de Montaigne was an important person of this movement. His “An Apology for Raymond Sebond” was a skeptic book. Raymond Sebond thought that God can be found in nature by using reason and senses. Montaigne did not agree to that idea, and he thought that all theology is based on the interpretation of revelation with reason and senses; therefore all of them are wrong. As a solution, empiricism and rationalism emerged.
Empiricism and Rationalism are based on Bacon and Descartes’ ideas. Bacon’s book, Novum Organum, was very crucial. Because in this book, Bacon suggested new tools to get new knowledge instead of Aristotle’s logical and methodological works which is called Organon. Bacon suggested a process of reduction from systematic experimentation with tabulation and experiments. According to Bacon, technology is something always develops, but science does not. In university, knowledge is dogma and controversy so learning is unproductive. Human beings are limited so cannot know everything, even Aristotle cannot know everything. Therefore people have to get together and share their knowledge because learning is collective. Bacon also disagrees to conclude everything from one little thing, deductive reasoning. According to Bacon people do not conclude like this and must discipline their mind to work with senses, because people tend to disregard the senses. He follows Aristotle’s induction and causes except final causes. To understand the nature, people must experience it outside or listen to it from someone who experienced it, this is a new knowledge. So knowledge is not just for scholars, it is for everybody. This is called empiricism.
Descartes studied at Le Fleche, Jesuit College which purpose treat future king or prince. Later, he joined the army of the Dutch Republic. Because in Catholic countries, new ideas seem like heretic action and judge, but the Dutch Republic was not like that. He met Isaac Beekman in Dutch. Isaac Beekman explained physical problem mathematically by using mathematics. His idea has an impact on Descartes. He left behind what he learned in school, with observation and interaction to world and people to come up with reliable knowledge. He also was a skeptic, but he thought that skepticism needs a solid core, a foundation. As a result, he thought “I think, therefore I am”. He thought that everything can be doubted except a doubter. If God does not deceive me actively, then something must be certain. Since God creates people reasonable, that reason must be reliable. Senses can be mistaken, but not reason. Everything comes from the senses is fuzzy. Colors, tastes, the smell may be misleading. However, mathematics is certainly true. According to Descartes, an atom is like a unit of thing but everything has a different unit. There is only extension and motion in the world. The world is like a machine and God is like a clockmaker. This is mechanical philosophy and the notion of reason is the only reliable thing is rationalism.
To conclude, knowledge is something progress slowly. From the scholastic universities and madrasas to modern philosophy, there are some departure, slow change, and development. Skepticism, empiricism, and rationalism are the important term which shaped this era.
(From lecture notes, 09.05.2013)
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