![]() To the medieval mind, debate was a fine art, a serious science, and a fascinating entertainment, much more than it is to the modern mind, because the medievals believed, like Socrates, that dialectic could uncover truth. It uses induction as well as deduction, and its data come from ordinary experience and divine revelation as well as philosophical axioms ("first principles").Ī Summa is really a summarized debate. Yet, though very systematic, a Summa is not a system in the modern sense, a closed and deductive system like that of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, or Hegel. So a Summa is ordered and outlined with loving care. The medievals had a passion for order, because they believed that God had a passion for order when He designed the universe. ![]() Everything is "bottom line." Such a style should appeal to busy moderns. There is extreme economy in the use of words-no digressions and few illustrations. ![]() It is more like an encyclopedia than a textbook, and it is meant to be used more as a reference library than as a book. ![]()
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