Disputatio medievalis: a pedagogical practice for exercising critical thinking

Instituto Filosofia e Teologia Dom João Resende Costa

Abstract

The disputatio medievalis, which reached its peak in the 13th century, remains an excellent pedagogical practice for exercising critical thinking. It unfolds in four strictly sequential stages: i) Lectio (the careful reading and listening to authoritative sources on a given subject); ii) Quaestio (the identification of questions and problems arising from the lectio); iii) the disputatio itself (a debate among students divided into two groups: the positio, which argues “positively” to resolve the questions raised, and the opponens, which expresses opposition exclusively through questions, neither affirming nor denying anything, but rather compelling the positio to provide further argumentation, with both sides driven by the pursuit of the best possible answer); and iv) reportatio (the professor, who has remained silent throughout the previous stages, gathers the entire debate, the collatio, and presents an original synthesis for publication).