Publication Details

Abstract

The paper offers a comparison of two different approaches in Medieval thought to a theoretical science, both drawing from Aristotle. It also discusses the influence these approaches exercised on the understanding of the scientific status of theology. It outlines Thomas Aquinas’s conception of the theology as a science, followed by its critique by John Duns Scotus. In its first part the paper offers a detailed description of the core of the medieval conceptions, as well as of the Aristotelian conception of science, its logical-methodological as well as its psychological aspects, showing, that the medieval authors mentioned did not share neither of them. In conclusion the paper outlines the roots, transformations and some of the historical aspects of the relationship between philosophy and theology, which became also the subject matter of the discussions about the scientific status of theology.