We see from the foregoing that the universally derided scholasticism
travelled along the whole line of modern thought: from the "realism" of
Thomas, which leaves the universals as yet unassailed by doubt and
occupying the very heart of knowledge, past the first and, to our view,
very modest doubts of the nominalists, to the agnosticism of Bacon, Duns
and Occam.
With the new position of decided nominalism the foundation was prepared
for the experimental sciences on the one hand, and mysticism on the
other. For the conclusion that things supernatural are a closed book to
us may have two results: on the one hand, the rejection of the
transcendental and the victory of science; on the other, the need to
descend into the profoundest depths of the universe and the soul, and
grasp by intuition what common sense does not see.
The time was ripe and the consummators came: Dante in the south, Eckhart
in the countries north of the Alps. With regard to Dante, I will say one
thing only; he gathered together all the achievements of the new art and
transcended them in a work which has never been surpassed.
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