Debate in Education
Debate
on all topics gained popularity during the twelfth century due to
three factors: the rising literacy rates that enabled the traditionally
oral disputes to be recorded, the focus on debate in the practice
of law, and the development of stronger class and group consciousnesses.(1)
The rediscovery of four of Aristotle's works by Jacob of Venice
in 1128 also contributed to the burgeoning focus on disputation
as an educational foundation during (and after) the twelfth century.
Aristotle's logical argumentative style influenced the debate practiced
in the grammar school and university classrooms which tended to
be a "formal discussion" between two people, each of whom
took an opposing side of an issue. One side would not concede to
the other, but instead a third party would provide a determinatio
at the debate's end, either pulling together the two argued sides
into a resolved answer to the issue or declaring a winner.(2)
Medieval debate poems reflect this educational practice, containing
two characters who argue opposing viewpoints on a certain issue.
These debate poems, however, do not always concern themselves with
identifying the winner of the verbal battle and, not uncommonly,
can lack a determinatio.
Debate poems, therefore, were written amidst a shift in educational
practices that contributed to the twelfth century's interest in
the relationship between opposites. Opposites could be seen not
only in the exterior world (winter and summer, water and wine, heaven
and hell) but also within the individual (body and soul, heart and
eye). Many of the debate poems written during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries explore these dualities of experience with vigor.
The contemplation of opposites demands that one question how the
two sides relate to each other. The "Debate between the Body
and the Soul" experiments with dualities, exploring what happens
during the time between death and Judgment Day between two characters
who were once unified but now exist somewhere between unity and
separation. Presenting a scene in divided time between two divided
beings, this debate explores the conflicting nature of humanity
and thereby confronts the epistemological questions at play in scholastic
and popular culture of Middle Ages.
1. See Michel-André Bossy, ed. and trans. Medieval Debate Poetry: Vernacular Works. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1987. xii-xiv.
2. For further discussion of the medieval debate, see James J. Murphy, ed. Medieval Eloquence: Studies in the Theory and Practice of Medieval Rhetoric. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. 20-7.