Philosophy · Unit 12

Medieval Philosophy

Faith and reason from Augustine to Aquinas

Medieval philosophy is dismissed as theology by people who have not read it. Much of it is rigorous argument about logic, language and the limits of reason.

The unit covers Augustine, Aquinas, the faith and reason debate, scholasticism, and the Islamic and Jewish philosophers without whom Aristotle would not have reached medieval Europe.

This unit breaks down into 23 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 5. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 23
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-5

What this unit covers

Augustine
Thomas Aquinas
Faith and Reason
Islamic and Jewish Philosophy
Scholasticism

Where this fits

Follows Ancient Greek Philosophy. Pairs with History's The Islamic Golden Age.

Where people slip

Aristotle returned to Europe through Arabic translation and commentary. Ibn Rushd and Maimonides are part of this story, not an aside to it.

How the unit is structured

Medieval Philosophy runs as 23 short steps that unlock in order. 17 are practice rounds and 6 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 5 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 23 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Augustine

Fill the blankLevel 1
1. Augustine wrote a famous book called The City of ____.
- Godcorrect
- Gold
- Rome
- Light
The book is titled The City of God.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
2. Which famous book is Augustine's own life story, telling how he found his faith?
- Confessionscorrect
- The Republic
- The Iliad
- Meditations
Augustine's Confessions is an early autobiography describing his life and his conversion.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
3. Which of these books did Augustine write? Pick all that apply.
- Confessionscorrect
- The City of Godcorrect
- The Canon of Medicine
- The Republic
Augustine wrote both Confessions and The City of God.
Odd one outLevel 2
4. Three of these were written by Augustine. Which one was not?
- The Republiccorrect
- Confessions
- The City of God
- On Christian Teaching
The Republic was written by Plato, not by Augustine.
True or falseLevel 2
5. Augustine served as a Christian bishop in the city of Hippo in North Africa.
Answer: True
Augustine was the bishop of Hippo, in what is now Algeria.
Type the answerLevel 2
6. Which early Christian thinker wrote the Confessions and The City of God? Give his name.
Answer: Augustine
Both books were written by Augustine.

Faith and Reason

Fill the blankLevel 2
7. The medieval debate about belief and thinking is often called faith and ____.
- reasoncorrect
- money
- war
- music
It is the question of how faith and reason relate.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
8. A big question for medieval philosophers was how to fit religious faith together with human what?
- Reasoncorrect
- Money
- Farming
- Weather
Medieval thinkers debated how faith and reason relate to each other.
True or falseLevel 2
9. Medieval thinkers often asked whether faith and reason could agree with each other.
Answer: True
How faith and reason fit together was a central medieval question.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
10. Which of these were medieval approaches to faith and reason? Pick all that apply.
- Reason can support faithcorrect
- Some truths need revelationcorrect
- Faith and reason share the same sourcecorrect
- Reason must be completely banned
Many medieval thinkers saw reason and faith as working together, not as reason being banned.
Match the pairsLevel 3
11. Match each thinker to the idea they are known for.
Answer: Aquinas = The Five Ways; Anselm = The ontological argument; Ockham = The razor of simplicity; Averroes = Commentaries on Aristotle
Each thinker is linked to a famous idea of theirs.
Guess the numberLevel 4
12. The famous Paris Condemnations of many philosophical claims took place in which century?
Answer: 13 century
The main Condemnations came in 1277, which falls in the 13th century.

Islamic and Jewish Philosophy

Choose all that applyLevel 2
13. Which of these thinkers were Islamic philosophers? Pick all that apply.
- Avicennacorrect
- Averroescorrect
- Maimonides
- Augustine
Avicenna and Averroes were Islamic philosophers, while Maimonides was Jewish.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
14. The great Islamic philosopher Ibn Sina is known in the West by which Latin name?
- Avicennacorrect
- Averroes
- Maimonides
- Boethius
Ibn Sina is widely known in the West as Avicenna.
Odd one outLevel 2
15. Three of these were Islamic philosophers. Which one was not?
- Aquinascorrect
- Avicenna
- Averroes
- Al-Farabi
Aquinas was a Christian philosopher, while the others worked in the Islamic tradition.
Fill the blankLevel 3
16. Besides philosophy, Avicenna was famous as a ____, writing a medical book used for centuries.
- physiciancorrect
- farmer
- sailor
- painter
Avicenna was also a physician whose Canon of Medicine was studied for a long time.
Match the pairsLevel 3
17. Match each thinker to a work linked with them.
Answer: Avicenna = The Canon of Medicine; Averroes = Commentaries on Aristotle; Maimonides = The Guide for the Perplexed; Al-Ghazali = The Incoherence of the Philosophers
Each thinker is paired with one of their best known works.
Sort into groupsLevel 3
18. Sort each thinker by the religious tradition they belonged to.
Answer: Augustine = Christian; Aquinas = Christian; Avicenna = Islamic; Averroes = Islamic; Maimonides = Jewish
Augustine and Aquinas were Christian, Avicenna and Averroes were Islamic, and Maimonides was Jewish.

Scholasticism

Choose all that applyLevel 2
19. Which of these fit scholasticism? Pick all that apply.
- It grew in medieval universitiescorrect
- It used logic and debatecorrect
- It was a modern rock band
- It was a type of ship
Scholasticism grew in medieval universities and used debate and logic to study questions.
Fill the blankLevel 2
20. The idea that we should prefer the simplest good explanation is called Ockham's ____.
- razorcorrect
- sword
- hammer
- ladder
It is known as Ockham's razor.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
21. Scholasticism was the style of learning and debate that grew up in medieval what?
- Universitiescorrect
- Factories
- Ships
- Farms
Scholasticism developed in the medieval schools and universities like Paris and Oxford.
Match the pairsLevel 3
22. Match each medieval thinker to a book they wrote.
Answer: Augustine = Confessions; Aquinas = Summa Theologica; Maimonides = The Guide for the Perplexed; Anselm = Proslogion
Each thinker is paired with one of their well known works.
Odd one outLevel 3
23. Three of these were medieval philosophers. Which one lived long before the medieval period?
- Socratescorrect
- Anselm
- Aquinas
- Ockham
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher, while the others were medieval.
Put in orderLevel 4
24. Put these medieval thinkers in order from earliest to latest.
Answer: Augustine -> Avicenna -> Anselm -> Aquinas -> Ockham
Augustine came first, then Avicenna, Anselm, Aquinas, and finally Ockham.

Thomas Aquinas

Choose all that applyLevel 2
25. Which of these are true of Thomas Aquinas? Pick all that apply.
- He was a Dominican friarcorrect
- He wrote the Summa Theologicacorrect
- He gave the Five Wayscorrect
- He lived in ancient Athens
Aquinas was a Dominican friar who wrote the Summa Theologica and gave the Five Ways.
Fill the blankLevel 2
26. Aquinas's five arguments for God are together called the Five ____.
- Wayscorrect
- Days
- Books
- Kings
They are known as the Five Ways.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
27. What is the name of Thomas Aquinas's huge work summing up Christian theology?
- Summa Theologicacorrect
- The Confessions
- The Canon of Medicine
- The Prince
The Summa Theologica is Aquinas's great systematic work of theology.
Guess the numberLevel 3
28. Roughly which century did Thomas Aquinas live in?
Answer: 13 century
Aquinas lived from about 1225 to 1274, so in the 1200s, the 13th century.
Sort into groupsLevel 3
29. Sort each book by the writer who wrote it.
Answer: Confessions = Augustine; The City of God = Augustine; Summa Theologica = Aquinas; Summa Contra Gentiles = Aquinas
Augustine wrote the Confessions and The City of God, while Aquinas wrote the two Summas.
Match the pairsLevel 4
30. Match each medieval thinker to their honorary title.
Answer: Aquinas = The Angelic Doctor; Duns Scotus = The Subtle Doctor; Averroes = The Commentator; Al-Farabi = The Second Teacher
Each thinker is paired with the honorary title tradition gave them.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 10 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Choose all that apply
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Put in order
Sort into groups
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Medieval Philosophy

120 questions across 23 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

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