-təˌsizəm noun
( -s )
1. usually capitalized : a philosophical movement dominant in western Christian civilization from the Carolingian period in the 9th century until the rise of Cartesianism in the 17th century ; specifically : the philosophical systems and speculative tendencies of various medieval Christian thinkers who working on a background of fixed religious dogma sought to solve anew general philosophical problems (as of faith and reason, will and intellect, realism and nominalism, and the provability of the existence of God) initially under the influence of the mystical and intuitional tradition of patristic philosophy and especially Augustinianism and later under that of Aristotle — compare ockhamism , scotism , thomism ; see neo-scholasticism
2. : close adherence to traditional teachings or methods prescribed by schools or sects ; specifically : a viewpoint dominated by scholastic modes of thought