La teoría política y la universidad en el siglo XIV

Abstract

Concerning the Middle Ages it is difficult to distinguish between political theory and the more comprehensive although somewhat vague, ideas of political orientation. The area of political acting was by no means clearly defined. The formation of a political theory in the Middle Ages started relatively late. Political theory took the same road as all the other theoretical attempts in medieval society. The first universities began to spread in a homogenous progress all over Europe. From that time scholasticism provided the unchallenged methodical ideal and the pattern for any systematic thinking. In spite of the differences of faculties, the methods of learning were altogether observed by everyone contributing to in the development of theories. Yet conditions were more difficult in the field of political theory because it was not a discipline of its own from the beginning. It had never been at the cathedral schools and the monasteries in pre-university times, and it took a long time before political theory established itself as an autonomous field of studies. In the Middle Ages nobody could have had the idea that political theory was only possible by way of a single method, faculty or by one tradition alone. Several established disciplines were competing with one another in delivering their own contributions without excluding the others. Thus political theories were being occupied by different strings of humanities and sciences, and yet none of the disciplines alone could claim to be the only one responsible for political theory. Indeed all the authors of the late Middle Ages dealing with political theory show in their treatises the process and speed of this occupation by the sciences.