<b>Value and meaning of knowledge in eighteenth century Mendicant Orders</b> - doi: 10.4025/actascieduc.v32i2.9775

Abstract

The thirteenth century expresses itself by a University’s own formulation, in which all knowledge must be oriented by sapientia sacrae paginae, which was expressed by theology. This was, undoubtedly, a Church ideal, but also a theoretical challenge for contemporary thinkers. With the epistemological complexity inherited from the twelfth century and the inclusion of mendicant orders in academic work, mainly the Dominicans and the Franciscans, this history of the ideas stage accompanies the basic antagonism: the naturalism of classic heritage –  supported by Arabic thinking – and the Christian Humanism that competed against each other to  explain  Man’s final goal. The value and the meaning of knowledge depended, largely, on the answer given to explain this diversity of  perspectives. Moreover, despite the influence of the great ancient authors, Aristotelianism and Neo-Platonism were not prerogatives of a specific religious order. Thus, Neo-Platonism is found in St. Thomas writings while,  the Franciscan School empirical orientation is also significant in England. Some, however, would agree about a unit of knowledge that could be interpreted  under the label  of  transcendental beings.