Ideas and Ideals

The article is devoted to the question of significance of the problem of knowledge in scholasticism and the inner structure of the questioning about knowledge. The time of studying of epistemological theories formed by scholastics – both Medieval and Post-Medieval – has come quite recently, it seems that due to the “ontological” interpretation of the principles of scholasticism and the belief that “being” completely and directly determines “consciousness” in this intellectual culture. At the same time, the author shows in the first part of the article that the problem of cognition occupied a prominent place in the structure of scholastic texts, and, on the one hand, it was a foundation of the main arguments in theology and philosophy, on the other hand, epistemic problems constitute a special complex of logical and psychological treatises in the Corpus Aristotelicum. The significance of this problem was of the utmost importance, not only thinkers who were “rationalists” (e.g., Duns Scotus or Ockham), but “mystics” as well (e.g., a proponent of the theory of divine illumination of intelligence, Henry of Ghent) devoted much effort to the interpretation of cognitive mechanisms, terminus and the possibilities of knowledge, connection of its different types. This tradition existed for several centuries, and it was characterized by significant conceptual unity, the method of understanding epistemology was explicitly described in the scholastic tradition and it was generalized with the help of certain markers that indicated questions and solutions that were proposed by the scholastics – the second part of the article is devoted to that task, based on the latest investigations of both Russian and foreign researchers. It is shown that the complex of questions can be divided into three main groups: (1) the problem of “intentionality” (in the medieval sense - the first and second intentions), (2) the problem of cognitivity (how to determine the meaning of the existing cognitive potencies: “intellectus agen” and “intellectus patient”), and (3) the problem of mental objects (the formal status of multilevel intentional formations representing things). These topics remained basic with all the differences in scholastic concepts of knowledge, forming the basis for the discussion of these issues in both Medieval and Post-Medieval Scholasticism.