Via antiqua, via moderna

In October 1468 Stephan Hoest, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Heidelberg, delivered an address at the graduation ceremony for those who had studied the old syllabus (via antiqua), which kept largely to traditional textbooks and methods. In March 1469 he gave a second speech at a second graduation ceremony, for those who had followed the new syllabus (via moderna), involving the study of advanced logic and Aristotelian science. Hoest emphasises the advantages of each system for its own graduates. He himself was of the via moderna and he speaks warmly of the way in which by careful use of language (dicendi proprietatem) ‘the modern way’ is able to indicate ways of resolving the apparent contradictions in the Bible. This was its great strength: making use of the technical skills of grammar and dialectic and the new Aristotelian science its practitioners could bring order and clarity to the most puzzling passages. The via antiqua preferred to keep for the most part to the help the Fathers could give, though it was far from untouched by modern methods.

The arrival of the remainder of Aristotle's logical works in the West had an enlarging effect upon the study of logic not only because there was now so much more textbook material to be worked on, but also because they suggested new emphases and brought to light new problems. The Prior and Posterior Analytics, the Topics and the Sophistici Elenchi contain further discussions of aspects already covered in the textbooks of the Old Logic. In the Prior Analytics, for example, Aristotle looks further at predication and at the underlying metaphysical questions about the nature of things.