The greatest change was made in the rules concerning the teaching of philosophy and natural sciences. Aristotle, the Philosopher of former times, could no longer hold his place in the schools. So the Revised Ratio does not mention him, although the speculative questions of logics and general metaphysics are mostly treated according to Aristotelian principles. And rightly so; for as a modern Professor of Philosophy says, "Aristotle's doctrine forms the basis of traditional logic even to this day."[1]
It may be safely said that after the vagaries of Hegel and others, there was manifested, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, a greater appreciation of Aristotelian philosophy. The most prominent advocate of this revival, Professor Trendelenburg of Berlin, expressly declares that "the organic theory of the universe, the basis of which was laid by Plato and Aristotle, is the only philosophy which has a future before it; and that speculation done by fits and starts and by every man for himself, has proved itself to have no permanence."[2] A remark of Professor Paulsen may not be without interest. "There are people who are inclined to use the names of Thomas Aquinas and Scotus as synonymous with nonsense and craziness. To such it may be well to say that even at the present day there are men who think similarly as Saint Thomas, whom they consider the prince of philosophers, and on whom they base their whole philosophical instruction. And these are the men to whom the despisers of scholasticism give credit for a great amount, if not of wisdom, at least of extraordinary
