![]() McCrade, The Political Thought of William of Ockham (1974). Moody, The Logic of William of Ockham (1935, repr. His Dialogus is a thorough discussion of political theories. In the area of logic, where he had great influence, he is remembered for his use of the principle of parsimony, formulated as “Occam's razor,” which enjoined economy in explanation with the axiom, “What can be done with fewer is done in vain with more.” Like Marsilius of Padua, Occam strongly opposed the temporal power of the pope and wrote numerous works on the subject. Just as he had maintained a distinction between our concepts and being, he saw creation not as a necessary consequence of the divine intellect, as Aquinas had, but as an expression of God's limitless will. William of Ockham was born around 1285 in the small village of Ockham in Surrey, England, although nothing is known of his parents or his early life before. For this reason Occam severely restricted the province of philosophy in order to safeguard theology, denying the competence of reason in matters of faith. An empiricist, Occam disputed the self-evidence of principles of Aristotelian logic (like the final cause) and of Christian theology (like the existence of God). Specifically, Occam denied the existence of universals except in our minds and in language. ![]() He saw our concepts to be naturally occasioned by the world, but thought could not be taken as a measure of being. A nominalist, he denied that the forms of knowledge corresponded to those of being. Strong opposition to his opinions from members of the theological faculty prevented him from obtaining his Master's degree. Occam's teachings mark an important break with previous medieval philosophy, especially with the Aristotelian realism of St. William of Occam Biography He entered the Franciscan order at an early age and took the traditional course of theological studies at Oxford. He is thought to have died in the black plague that swept Europe in the middle of the 14th cent. When it appeared that Pope John XXII was about to condemn his position Occam fled to the protection of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, whom he supported in his struggle with Pope John. He waited there until 1328 for a judgment. His popular fame as a great logician rests chiefly on the maxim attributed to him and known as Occam's razor. A Franciscan, Occam studied and taught at Oxford from c.1310 until 1324, when he was summoned to the papal court at Avignon to answer charges of heresy in his writings. William of Ockham ( circa 12871347) was an English Franciscan friar and theologian, an influential medieval philosopher and a nominalist.
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