Disputatum

Disputatum is a term used chiefly in scholarly contexts to denote a proposition, question, or claim that is subject to dispute within a given discursive framework. The word is derived from Latin disputatum, the neuter participle of disputare, meaning "something that has been argued." In medieval and early modern scholasticism, disputata referred to questions brought into disputationes—the formal exercises in which scholars debated unsettled issues. The label helped organizers distinguish between settled propositions and those requiring examination, rebuttal, or further evidence.

In legal and political theory, disputatum has been used to describe contested norms, evidentiary standards, or jurisdictional questions awaiting adjudication. In contemporary philosophy, it appears in discussions of epistemic and normative controversy, where a disputatum marks a topic still lacking consensus and thus a candidate for criteria, justification, or reform.

Scholarly usage tends to emphasize systematic handling: identifying disputata clarifies the scope of debate, guides argumentation, and signals where decisions may depend on contextual values, empirical data, or methodological assumptions. Critics note that overuse of the term can obscure practical outcomes by treating all unsettled matters as inherently disputable rather than as cases requiring further inquiry.

Disputatum remains a niche term, primarily of interest to historians of logic, jurisprudence, and theory of argument.