Double Truth

a term designating the doctrine of the division between philosophical and theological truths, according to which something that is true in philosophy may be false in theology, and vice versa. The double truth doctrine came into being in the Middle Ages during the era when Aristotelian philosophy was spreading, when it came to light that a number of the Aristotelian system’s philosophical tenets contradicted the dogmas of Islam and Christianity. The most influential thinker to be guided by the double truth doctrine in his polemics with Muslim theologians was Aver-roës. Deriving from this doctrine were the French 13th-century Averroism (its head at the University of Paris was Siger de Brabant) and some forms of English nominalism, such as that of John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. The double truth doctrine was widely held during the Renaissance, by Pomponazzi, the Padua school of Averroists, and others; it furthered the development of rationalism