The Scholastic Method can be broken down into four main stages, each designed to deepen understanding, promote critical thinking, and foster intellectual growth. These stages are known as:

1. Lectio (Reading):

Purpose: The first stage involves careful and attentive reading of primary texts, often classic works or foundational texts in a field. This stage is about gathering information and understanding the author’s arguments.

Focus: Focus on comprehension and understanding the text in its original context. Students read to uncover the author’s main thesis and the supporting arguments, paying attention to nuances and deeper meanings.

Approach: Active reading, highlighting key concepts, making annotations, and seeking a broader context for the material.

2. Meditatio (Meditation):

Purpose: After reading, the next stage is reflection. Students take the time to think critically about the material, considering its implications, challenges, and relevance.

Focus: Focus on the concepts and arguments presented in the text. Students should engage with the material emotionally and intellectually, contemplating how it relates to other ideas they have encountered or how it applies to real-world situations.

Approach: This stage encourages self-guided thought and requires the student to internalize the material, making personal connections and identifying gaps in understanding.

3. Disputatio (Debate):

Purpose: The third stage involves dialogue and debate, whether through formal discussion or structured problem-solving. This stage is designed to test the ideas presented in the text against different viewpoints, ultimately leading to a more refined understanding.

Focus: Engage in critical debate with peers or mentors, challenging the assumptions and arguments found in the text. Counterarguments are considered and the validity of the text’s points are evaluated.

Approach: Socratic questioning plays a key role, with students asking probing questions to clarify and critique the material. This is an opportunity for synthesizing knowledge and testing ideas in a safe and structured academic setting.

4. Expositio (Exposition):

Purpose: The final stage of the Scholastic Method involves synthesizing what has been learned and presenting it clearly to others. The student is expected to articulate their understanding and provide logical explanations of the material.

Focus: The focus is on clear, structured communication. This stage often involves writing essays, giving presentations, or engaging in other forms of intellectual exposition.

Approach: After synthesizing the material, students organize their thoughts into a coherent argument, presenting it in a clear and persuasive manner. The goal is not only to display mastery of the material but also to communicate it effectively.

The Scholastic Method encourages students to interact closely with the material, think critically, and synthesize their learning into coherent, convincing knowledge expressions. It provides an organized but adaptable approach to intellectual growth. It is an essential tool for cultivating polymathic thinkers who can logically, clearly, and creatively navigate complex ideas across a variety of disciplines within the framework of the Tertullian Graduate Program.

Cognitive-Emotive Diffusion is an innovative intellectual theory developed under Project Tertullian that converges two ages-old polar extremes—reason and emotion. Unlike seeing emotion as a barrier to logic, CED regards emotion as an enhancer that multiplies understanding, accelerates perception, and strengthens intellectual engagement.

This method tries to resolve the ancient dualism of cognition versus emotion by uniting them into a well-structured and balanced system that includes both. CED ensures the mind remains correct while the heart remains involved.

Six Areas of Cognition

These dimensions represent the logical-intellectual scaffolding of mastery:

1. Intuition – Rapid pattern recognition and deep conceptual fluency.
   
   

2. Computation – Technical execution, problem-solving, and mental rigor.
   
   

3. Abstraction – Stripping complexity to its essence; synthesizing core principles.
   
   

4. Convergence – Fusing disciplines and insights into unified understanding.
   
   

5. Oration – Rhetorical precision, persuasive reasoning, and expressive clarity.
   
   

6. Creation – Generating original thought, systems, and innovations from internalized mastery.
   
   

Six Areas of Emotion

These domains govern the emotional-intuitive architecture of thought:

1. Resonance – Feeling the inner gravity of ideas; sensing conceptual-emotional impact.
   
   

2. Accommodation – Absorbing other perspectives with openness and empathy.
   
   

3. Meta-Enpathy – Understanding how others arrive at their conclusions, both emotionally and intellectually.
   
   

4. Reflection – Applying moral and intuitive discernment to knowledge.
   
   

5. Outlook – Projecting future implications of present learning.
   
   

6. Retrospection – Reviewing emotional states and correcting biases to preserve clarity.
   
   

Cognitive-Emotive Diffusion is the internal structure of  the Scholastic Method’s external structure, together forming a complete pedagogical model where emotional insight and intellectual rigor co-evolve.