Rethinking the School of Salamanca

Abstract

This collective review analyzes four significant recent books about the second Spanish scholasticism and, more specifically, the School of Salamanca. The author argues that the School of Salamanca still sheds light on current issues, such as human rights, the equality of all human beings, the autonomy of civil power, the existence of a global human community, and the need for understanding between peoples. However, current scholarly interest in the School of Salamanca could benefit from greater international coordination among the various initiatives. Work should continue to overcome specific cultural barriers among scholars, especially language barriers, and to integrate the diverse perspectives from which to approach this cultural movement. The School of Salamanca should be analyzed holistically, first as a part of a more significant movement called scholasticism, which promotes a specific method of study, and second, as an autonomous whole that arose in Salamanca. To exclude any possible approaches, as some of the works reviewed here suggest, means to put up barriers to knowledge rather than to achieve intellectual accuracy. The unity of reality demands unity in knowledge.