scholastic

is a blind man who fights men who can see by making them go into the depths of a very dark cave'.

Leaving the cave becomes a metaphor within the philosophy of history... it denotes a new epoch of humanity. This is how Descartes used the metaphor. He compares the Scholastics' fight against the new science to the ways of 'a blind man, who, to fight without a handicap against someone who is sighted, makes his opponent go into the depths of a very dark cave'... in publishing his method, by contrast, he 'would be doing almost the same as if [he] were to open some windows and make some light of day enter into that cave where they have descended to fight.' 38 This is a significant new image in place of the paideutic path out of the cave, for here the space itself is transformed. It does something not only to man but to the world, something that no longer depends on the individual's education and will. (Blumenberg 1993 [1957] : 39)

scholastic, n.Definitions

scholastic