Sic et Non


Sic et Non, an early scholastic text whose title translates from Medieval Latin as "Yes and No", was written by Peter Abelard. In the work, Abelard juxtaposes apparently contradictory quotations from the Church Fathers on many of the traditional topics of Christian theology. In the Prologue, Abélard outlines rules for reconciling these contradictions, the most important of which is noting the multiple significations of a single word. However, Abélard does not himself apply these rules in the body of the Sic et Non, which has led scholars to conclude that the work was meant as an exercise book for students in applying dialectic to theology.
In Sic et Non, Abelard presents 158 questions that present a theological assertion and allows its negation.
The first five questions are:
  1. Must human faith be completed by reason, or not?
  2. Does faith deal only with unseen things, or not?
  3. Is there any knowledge of things unseen, or not?
  4. May one believe only in God alone, or not?
  5. Is God a single unitary being, or not?
The prologue frames the text as a professor's guide, "Aristotle, the most clear-sighted of all the philosophers, was desirous above all things else to arouse this questioning spirit...".

Recensions and dating of the ''Sic et non''

There are eleven surviving full and partial manuscripts of the Sic et non. These are:
There is also one surviving manuscript containing solely q. 117:
An examination of these manuscripts demonstrates the existence of successive drafts of the Sic et non.