scholasticismn.

1. The predominant theological and philosophical teaching of medieval academic institutions or the ‘schools’ (school n.¹ 12a), based upon the authority of the Bible and Christian Fathers and the logic and philosophy of Aristotle and his commentators; the methods of learning used in medieval academic institutions, characterized by dialectical reasoning, subtle argument, and disputation; the doctrines and teaching methods of the schoolmen (schoolman n. 3). Scholasticism attempted to use dialectic and reasoned argument to find rational proof of Christian doctrine, to systematize Christian theology by bringing conflicting doctrinal sources into harmony, and to reconcile Christian theology with ancient classical philosophy (esp. the works of Aristotle). Scholasticism dominated European philosophy from the 11th to the 15th cent., reaching its height during the 13th and early 14th cent., when the leading scholastic philosophers included Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham. By the 15th cent., humanists and reformers had begun to criticize the teaching of the medieval philosophers and the terms scholastic and scholastical were used with depreciative connotations by Renaissance humanists, who ridiculed the doctrines and methods of the medieval ‘schools’ for a perceived dependence upon quibbling argument and needless distinctions. In early use, therefore, there is some overlap between this sense and the depreciative use at sense 2.

2. Rigid or narrow-minded adherence to traditional doctrines and academic methods; dependence or insistence on the traditional methods and practices of the universities, esp. preoccupation with formal precision, subtle argument, and fine distinctions; pedantry, sophistry. Frequently somewhat depreciative.