Wikipedia

William of Ockham

(Redirected from William of Occam)

William of Ockham or Occam (/ˈɒkəm/ OK-əm; Latin: Guillelmus de Ockham;[9] c. 1287 – 9/10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher and theologian, born probably in Ockham, a small village in Surrey.[10] He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the 14th century. The nominalists of the fifteenth century regarded him as one of the founders of their movement.[11] He is widely known for Occam's razor, the methodological principle that bears his name. He produced significant works on logic, physics and theology. Ockham is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration corresponding to the commonly ascribed date of his death on 10 April.[12]

William of Ockham
OFM
William of Ockham depicted on a stained glass window by Lawrence Lee at All Saints' Church, Ockham[1]
Bornc. 1287[2]
Ockham, Surrey, England
Died9/10 April 1347[3]
Munich, Duchy of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire
Education
EducationGreyfriars, London[4]
Alma materUniversity of Oxford[5][6]
Philosophical work
EraMedieval philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
Main interests
Notable works
Sum of Logic
Notable ideas

Life

edit

William of Ockham was born probably in Ockham, Surrey, around 1287.[10] At an early age he became a member of the Franciscan Order (Order of Friars Minor) and received the first stages of his education in the Franciscan school in London. From some undetermined date until probably 1321, he studied theology in the Franciscan school in the University of Oxford.[6][13] Although he completed all the requirements for a master's degree in theology, he was never made a regent master. Because of this he was later called the Venerabilis Inceptor. (An inceptor was someone recognized by the university as qualified to begin ("incept") as a regent master).[14]

A scholar seeking to become a Master of Theology was required to give lectures on Peter Lombard's Sentences. These lectures (which were usually in the form of disputed questions) were often copied and circulated, and a "Commentary on the Sentences" was often a theologian's main publication.[15] Ockham's disputations on the Sentences were held probably in the years 1317-1319.[10] His Sentences commentary has been edited in his Opera Theologica.

After qualifying for the Mastership, Ockham was sent by his Order to one of its schools, probably the school in London where he had previously been a student. Most of the works he produced during this time were philosophical, rather than theological. They included commentaries on several logical treatises of Aristotle, a commentary on Aristotle's Physics, and a Summary of Logic. His output during this time was prodigious.[10] The works Ockham produced during this period have been edited in his Opera Philosophica.

His teaching work was interrupted in 1324 by a summons to the papal court, at that time located in Avignon, to defend his Sentences commentary.[15] (An alternative understanding, recently proposed by George Knysh, suggests that he was initially appointed in Avignon as a professor of philosophy in the Franciscan school there, and that his disciplinary difficulties did not begin until 1327.)[16] The accusation of heresy may have been made by the [17] The Pope, Pope John XXII, directed former Oxford chancellor John Lutterell,[18] who had come to Avignon looking for advancement, to prepare a collection of suspect passages from Ockham's Sentences commentary, and a committee of theologians was appointed to review them.[10] Their preliminary reports were critical, but the process was never brought to a conclusion.[2]

While he was in Avignon, Ockham became involved in the dispute about Apostolic poverty. The Rule of Saint Francis commanded members of the Order to practice the poverty of Jesus and his apostles, who, the Franciscans maintained, owned nothing either individually or "in common" (i.e. as a group). In several papal bulls or "constitutions" Pope John rejected the Franciscan doctrine and practice.[19] In Ad conditorem canonem John argued that no-one could justly consume (i.e. destroy by use) something owned by someone else (for example, food, clothing), and that it was not possible to transfer something to another person's use permanently without thereby transferring ownership. In Cum inter nonnullos John condemned as heresy the statement that Christ and the Apostles did not have anything individually or as a group. The Minister General (head) of the Franciscan order, Michael of Cesena, asked Ockham to study the pope's bulls. Ockham found in them "a great many things that were heretical, erroneous... adverse to orthodox faith".[20] Together with Michael, Bonagratia of Bergamo, Francis of Marchia and perhaps other members of the Order, Ockham secretly left Avignon on 26 May 1328. The dissident Franciscans eventually took refuge in Munich, under the protection of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria, who was also engaged in a dispute with Pope John over the question whether he ought to have obtained the Pope's approval to become Emperor.[15][10] On June 6, 1328, Ockham and the other dissidents were excommunicated for leaving Avignon without permission.[21]

Most members of the Franciscan Order submitted to the decrees of Pope John. Ockham and other members of the small band of dissident Franciscans in Munich (the "Michaelists") campaigned for years to get John XXII and his successors Benedict XII and Clement VI deposed from the papacy.[22] The writings Ockham published during those years are often called his "political writings" (Opera Politica), because they deal with many matters relevant to political philosophy. After he left Avignon Ockham seems to have written nothing more on the topics of his academic work in England.[10] William of Ockham died (just before the outbreak in Munich of the Black Death) on either 9 or 10 April 1347.[3]

Philosophical thought

edit

In scholasticism, William of Ockham advocated reform in both method and content, the aim of which was simplification. Ockham incorporated much of the work of some previous theologians, especially Duns Scotus. From Duns Scotus, Ockham derived his view of divine omnipotence, his view of grace and justification, much of his epistemology and ethical convictions.[23] However, he also reacted to and against Scotus in the areas of predestination, penance, his understanding of universals, his formal distinction ex parte rei (that is, "as applied to created things"), and his view of parsimony which became known as Occam's razor.

Faith and reason

edit

William of Ockham espoused fideism, stating that "only faith gives us access to theological truths. The ways of God are not open to reason, for God has freely chosen to create a world and establish a way of salvation within it apart from any necessary laws that human logic or rationality can uncover."[24] He believed that science was a matter of discovery and saw God as the only ontological necessity.[21] His importance is as a theologian with a strongly developed interest in logical method, and whose approach was critical rather than system building.[25]

Nominalism

edit

William of Ockham was a pioneer of nominalism, and some consider him the father of modern epistemology, because of his strongly argued position that only individuals exist, rather than supra-individual universals, essences, or forms, and that universals are the products of abstraction from individuals by the human mind and have no extra-mental existence.[26] He denied the real existence of metaphysical universals and advocated the reduction of ontology.[citation needed]

Ockham is sometimes considered an advocate of conceptualism rather than nominalism, for whereas nominalists held that universals were merely names, i.e. words rather than extant realities, conceptualists held that they were mental concepts, i.e. the names were names of concepts, which do exist, although only in the mind. Therefore, the universal concept has for its object, not a reality existing in the world outside us, but an internal representation which is a product of the understanding itself and which "supposes" in the mind the things to which the mind attributes it; that is, it holds, for the time being, the place of the things which it represents. It is the term of the reflective act of the mind. Hence the universal is not a mere word, as Roscelin taught, nor a sermo, as Peter Abelard held, namely the word as used in the sentence, but the mental substitute for real things, and the term of the reflective process. For this reason Ockham has sometimes also been called a "Terminist", to distinguish him from a nominalist or a conceptualist.[27]

Efficient reasoning

edit

One important contribution that he made to modern science and modern intellectual culture was efficient reasoning with the principle of parsimony in explanation and theory building that came to be known as Occam's razor. This maxim, as interpreted by Bertrand Russell,[28] states that if one can explain a phenomenon without assuming this or that hypothetical entity, there is no ground for assuming it, i.e. that one should always opt for an explanation in terms of the fewest possible causes, factors, or variables. He turned this into a concern for ontological parsimony; the principle says that one should not multiply entities beyond necessity—Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate—although this well-known formulation of the principle is not to be found in any of Ockham's extant writings.[29] He formulates it as: "For nothing ought to be posited without a reason given, unless it is self-evident (literally, known through itself) or known by experience or proved by the authority of Sacred Scripture."[30] For William of Ockham, the only truly necessary entity is God; everything else is contingent. He thus does not accept the principle of sufficient reason, rejects the distinction between essence and existence, and opposes the Thomistic doctrine of active and passive intellect. His scepticism to which his ontological parsimony request leads appears in his doctrine that human reason can prove neither the immortality of the soul; nor the existence, unity, and infinity of God. These truths, he teaches, are known to us by revelation alone.[27]

Natural philosophy

edit

Ockham wrote a great deal on natural philosophy, including a long commentary on Aristotle's Physics.[31] According to the principle of ontological parsimony, he holds that we do not need to allow entities in all ten of Aristotle's categories; we thus do not need the category of quantity, as the mathematical entities are not "real". Mathematics must be applied to other categories, such as the categories of substance or qualities, thus anticipating modern scientific renaissance while violating Aristotelian prohibition of metabasis.

Theory of knowledge

edit

In the theory of knowledge, Ockham rejected the scholastic theory of species, as unnecessary and not supported by experience, in favour of a theory of abstraction. This was an important development in late medieval epistemology. He also distinguished between intuitive and abstract cognition; intuitive cognition depends on the existence or non-existence of the object, whereas abstractive cognition "abstracts" the object from the existence predicate. Interpreters are, as yet, undecided about the roles of these two types of cognitive activities.[32]

Political theory

edit

William of Ockham is also increasingly being recognized as an important contributor to the development of Western constitutional ideas, especially those of government with limited responsibility.[33] He was one of the first medieval authors to advocate a form of church/state separation,[33] and was important for the early development of the notion of property rights. His political ideas are regarded as "natural" or "secular", holding for a secular absolutism.[33] The views on monarchical accountability espoused in his Dialogus (written between 1332 and 1347)[34] greatly influenced the Conciliar movement.[35] This tract on heresy had the ultimate purpose to establish the possibility of papal heresy and to consider what action should be taken against a pope who had become a heretic.[36]

Ockham argued for complete separation of spiritual rule and earthly rule.[37] He thought that the pope and churchmen have no right or grounds at all for secular rule like having property, citing 2 Timothy 2:4. That belongs solely to earthly rulers, who may also accuse the pope of crimes, if need be.[38]

After the Fall he believed God had given humanity, including non-Christians, two powers: private ownership and the right to set their rulers, who should serve the interest of the people, not some special interests. Thus he preceded Thomas Hobbes in formulating social contract theory along with earlier scholars.[38]

William of Ockham said that the Franciscans avoided both private and common ownership by using commodities, including food and clothes, without any rights, with mere usus facti, the ownership still belonging to the donor of the item or to the pope. Their opponents such as Pope John XXII wrote that use without any ownership cannot be justified: "It is impossible that an external deed could be just if the person has no right to do it."[38]

Thus the disputes on the heresy of Franciscans led Ockham and others to formulate some fundamentals of economic theory and the theory of ownership.[38]

According to John Kilcullen, "Ockham's Utilitarian theory of property, his defence of civil and (within limits) religious liberty, and his emphasis on the inevitability of exceptions to rules and the need to adapt institutions to changing circumstances, anticipate J.S. Mill" (via Aristotle).[39]

Logic

edit

In logic, William of Ockham wrote down in words the formulae that would later be called De Morgan's laws,[40] and he pondered ternary logic, that is, a logical system with three truth values; a concept that would be taken up again in the mathematical logic of the 19th and 20th centuries. His contributions to semantics, especially to the maturing theory of supposition, are still studied by logicians.[41][42] William of Ockham was probably the first logician to treat empty terms in Aristotelian syllogistic effectively; he devised an empty term semantics that exactly fit the syllogistic. Specifically, an argument is valid according to Ockham's semantics if and only if it is valid according to Prior Analytics.[43]

Philosophy of Time

edit

William of Ockham believed that eternity was exclusive to God.[44] He rejected the concept of the aevum as a special measure of duration of for angels.[44] He also said it is not proper to call eternity a measure of duration.[44] In Ockham's view, there was only one measure of duration, time, which was shared by all creation.[44]

Theological thought

edit

Church authority

edit

William of Ockham denied papal infallibility and often went into conflict with the pope.[45] As a result, some theologians have viewed him as a proto-Protestant.[46] However, despite his conflicts with the papacy he did not renounce the Roman Catholic Church.[47] Ockham also held that councils of the Church were fallible, he held that any individual could err on matters of faith, and councils being composed of multiple fallible individuals could err.[48] He thus foreshadowed some elements of Luther's view of sola scriptura.[49][50][51]

Church and State

edit

Ockham taught the separation of church and state, believing that the pope and emperor should be separate.[47]

Ockham adversed papal plenitudo potestatis:[52] even the famous allegory of the Sun-Pope/Moon-Emperor is contradicted by Our Lord, who, while admitting the greater/lower opposition (Ockham holds spiritual power and the Church's own functions in the highest esteem; in this sense, and only in this sense, does he consider them of greater importance), does not concede to the Curialists, defenders of the fullness of papal power, the argument that the Moon originated from the Sun.[52]

According to Ockham, the Pope obtains his power from the Council and, therefore, from the whole of all believers. In the same way, the elected Emperor is depositary of a power whose origin lies in the people who are always the authentic sovereign. Ockham developed in canon law the theories that Marsilius of Padua had promoted in civil law[52] (e.g. popular sovereignty).[53]

Apostolic poverty

edit

Ockham advocated for voluntary poverty.[54]

Soul

edit

Ockham opposed Pope John XXII on the question of the Beatific Vision. John had proposed that the souls of Christians did not instantly get to enjoy the vision of God, rather such vision would be postponed until the last judgement.[55]

Voluntarism

edit

William of Ockham was a theological voluntarist who believed that if God had wanted to, he could have become incarnate as a donkey or an ox, or even as both a donkey and a man at the same time. He was criticized for this belief by his fellow theologians and philosophers.[56]

Literary Ockhamism/nominalism

edit

William of Ockham and his works have been discussed as a possible influence on several late medieval literary figures and works, especially Geoffrey Chaucer, but also Jean Molinet, the Gawain poet, François Rabelais, John Skelton, Julian of Norwich, the York and Townely Plays, and Renaissance romances. Only in very few of these cases is it possible to demonstrate direct links to William of Ockham or his texts. Correspondences between Ockhamist and Nominalist philosophy/theology and literary texts from medieval to postmodern times have been discussed within the scholarly paradigm of literary nominalism.[57] Erasmus, in his Praise of Folly, criticized him together with Duns Scotus as fuelling unnecessary controversies inside the Church.

Works

edit
Sketch labelled "frater Occham iste", from a manuscript of Ockham's Summa Logicae, 1341
Quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum

The standard edition of the philosophical and theological works is: William of Ockham: Opera philosophica et theologica, Gedeon Gál, et al., eds. 17 vols. St. Bonaventure, New York: The Franciscan Institute, 1967–1988. Republished in electronic form by Intelex. Abbreviations: OT = Opera Theologica vol. 1–10; OP = Opera Philosophica vol. 1–7.

OP 7 contains the doubtful and spurious works.

The political works, all but the Dialogus, have been edited in H. S. Offler, et al., eds. Guilelmi de Ockham Opera Politica, 4 vols., 1940–1997, Manchester: Manchester University Press [vols. 1–3]; Oxford: Oxford University Press [vol. 4].

The Dialogus has now been edited and published in print in the British Academy series Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi. The Dialogus website includes translation of the whole work.

Philosophical writings

edit
  • Summa logicae (Sum of Logic) (c. 1323, OP 1).
  • Expositionis in Libros artis logicae prooemium, 1321–1324, OP 2).
  • Expositio in librum Porphyrii de Praedicabilibus, 1321–1324, OP 2).
  • Expositio in librum Praedicamentorum Aristotelis, 1321–1324, OP 2).
  • Expositio in librum in librum Perihermenias Aristotelis, 1321–1324, OP 2).
  • Tractatus de praedestinatione et de prescientia dei respectu futurorum contingentium (Treatise on Predestination and God's Foreknowledge with respect to Future Contingents, 1322–1324, OP 2).
  • Expositio super libros Elenchorum (Exposition of Aristotle's Sophistic refutations, 1322–1324, OP 3).
  • Expositio in libros Physicorum Aristotelis. Prologus et Libri I–III (Exposition of Aristotle's Physics) (1322–1324, OP 4).
  • Expositio in libros Physicorum Aristotelis. Prologus et Libri IV–VIII (Exposition of Aristotle's Physics) (1322–1324, OP 5).
  • Brevis summa libri Physicorum (Brief Summa of the Physics, 1322–23, OP 6).
  • Summula philosophiae naturalis (Little Summa of Natural Philosophy, 1319–1321, OP 6).
  • Quaestiones in libros Physicorum Aristotelis (Questions on Aristotle's Books of the Physics, before 1324, OP 6).

Theological writings

edit
  • In libros Sententiarum (Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard).
    • Book I (Ordinatio) completed shortly after July 1318 (OT 1–4).
    • Books II–IV (Reportatio) 1317–18 (transcription of the lectures; OT 5–7).
  • Quaestiones variae (OT 8).
  • Quodlibeta septem (before 1327) (OT 9).
  • Tractatus de quantitate (1323–24. OT 10).
  • Tractatus de corpore Christi (1323–24, OT 10).

Political writings

edit
  • Opus nonaginta dierum (1332–1334).
  • Epistola ad fratres minores (1334).
  • Dialogus (before 1335).
  • Tractatus contra Johannem [XXII] (1335).
  • Tractatus contra Benedictum [XII] (1337–38).
  • Octo quaestiones de potestate papae (1340–41).
  • Consultatio de causa matrimoniali (1341–42).
  • Breviloquium (1341–42).
  • De imperatorum et pontificum potestate [also known as Defensorium] (1346–47).

Doubtful writings

edit
  • Tractatus minor logicae (Lesser Treatise on logic) (1340–1347?, OP 7).
  • Elementarium logicae (Primer of logic) (1340–1347?, OP 7).

Spurious writings

edit
  • Tractatus de praedicamentis (OP 7).
  • Quaestio de relatione (OP 7).
  • Centiloquium (OP 7).
  • Tractatus de principiis theologiae (OP 7).

Translations

edit

Philosophical works

edit
  • Philosophical Writings, tr. P. Boehner, rev. S. Brown (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1990)
  • Ockham's Theory of Terms: Part I of the Summa logicae, translated by Michael J. Loux (Notre Dame; London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974) [translation of Summa logicae, part 1]
  • Ockham's Theory of Propositions: Part II of the Summa logicae, translated by Alfred J. Freddoso and Henry Schuurman (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1980) [translation of Summa logicae, part 2]
  • Demonstration and Scientific Knowledge in William of Ockham: a Translation of Summa logicae III-II, De syllogismo demonstrativo, and Selections from the Prologue to the Ordinatio, translated by John Lee Longeway (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2007)
  • Falacies: Part 3, Book 4 of Summa logicae, translated by Richard Robinson (Sunny Lou Publishing, 2025.) [58]
  • Ockham on Aristotle's Physics: A Translation of Ockham's Brevis Summa Libri Physicorum, translated by Julian Davies (St. Bonaventure, New York: The Franciscan Institute, 1989)
  • Kluge, Eike-Henner W., "William of Ockham's Commentary on Porphyry: Introduction and English Translation", Franciscan Studies 33, pp. 171–254, JSTOR 41974891, and 34, pp. 306–382, JSTOR 44080318 (1973–74)
  • Predestination, God's Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents, translated by Marilyn McCord Adams and Norman Kretzmann (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969) [translation of Tractatus de praedestinatione et de praescientia Dei et de futuris contigentibus]
  • Quodlibetal Questions, translated by Alfred J. Freddoso and Francis E. Kelley, 2 vols (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1991) (translation of Quodlibeta septem)
  • Paul Spade, Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham (Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett, 1994) [Five questions on Universals from His Ordinatio d. 2 qq. 4–8]
  • Tractatus de principiis theologiae, translated in A compendium of Ockham's teachings: a translation of the Tractatus de principiis theologiae, translated by Julian Davies (St. Bonaventure, New York: Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University, 1998)

Theological works

edit
  • The De sacramento altaris of William of Ockham, translated by T. Bruce Birch (Burlington, Iowa: Lutheran Literary Board, 1930) [translation of Treatise on Quantity and On the Body of Christ]

Political works

edit
  • An princeps pro suo succursu, scilicet guerrae, possit recipere bona ecclesiarum, etiam invito papa, translated Cary J. Nederman, in Political thought in early fourteenth-century England: treatises by Walter of Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of Ockham (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002)
  • A translation of William of Ockham's Work of Ninety Days, translated by John Kilcullen and John Scott (Lewiston, New York: E. Mellen Press, 2001) [translation of Opus nonaginta dierum]
  • On the Power of Emperors and Popes, translated by Annabel S. Brett (Bristol, 1998)
  • Rega Wood, Ockham on the Virtues (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1997) [includes translation of On the Connection of the Virtues]
  • A Letter to the Friars Minor, and Other Writings, translated by John Kilcullen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) [includes translation of Epistola ad Fratres Minores; some chapters of the Work of Ninety Days; some chapters of the Dialogus; and Eight Questions, Q.3, ]
  • A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government, translated by John Kilcullen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) [translation of Breviloquium de principatu tyrannico]
  • Dialogus [translation of the whole work, except for chapters translated in A Letter to the Friars Minor]
  • William of Ockham, [Question One of] Eight Questions on the Power of the Pope, translated by Jonathan Robinson[59]

In fiction

edit

William of Occam served as an inspiration for the creation of William of Baskerville, the main character of Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose, and is the main character of La Abadía del Crimen (The Abbey of Crime), a video game based upon said novel.

In the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Spock claims that “an ancestor” of his is responsible for Occam’s Razor.

See also

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ↑ However, Ockham has also been interpreted as a defender of conceptualism.

References

edit
  1. ↑ Brunton, J. (2022). Rogues, Rebels and Mavericks of the Middle Ages. Amberley. p. 425. ISBN 978-1-3981-0441-9. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  2. 1 2 Larsen, Andrew E. (2011). "The Investigation into William of Ockham". The School of Heretics: Academic Condemnation at the University of Oxford, 1277–1409. Brill. pp. 76–92. doi:10.1163/9789004206625_006. ISBN 978-90-04-20662-5.
  3. 1 2 Gál, Gedeon (1982). "William of Ockham Died 'Impenitent' in April 1347". Franciscan Studies. 42: 90–95. doi:10.1353/frc.1982.0011. JSTOR 41974990. S2CID 201793525. According to Fr. Herman ... died on April 9, 1347. A chronicler's note suggests that he died on April 10 ... Ockham's epitaph agrees with the chronicler .... How the question of whether Ockham died on the 9th or 10th is resolved is of no importance ... [and] may be due to a simple oversight.
  4. ↑ Spade, Paul Vincent (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Ockham. Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 18.
  5. ↑ Spade, Paul Vincent (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Ockham. Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 20.
  6. 1 2 He has long been claimed as a Merton alumnus, but there is no contemporary evidence to support this claim and as a Franciscan, he would have been ineligible for fellowships at Merton (see G. H. Martin and J. R. L. Highfield, A History of Merton College, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 53). The claim that he was a pupil of Duns Scotus at Oxford is also disputed (see Philip Hughes, History of the Church: Volume 3: The Revolt Against The Church: Aquinas To Luther, Sheed and Ward, 1979, p. 119 n. 2).
  7. ↑ Walker, L. (1912). "Voluntarism". In Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 27 September 2019 from New Advent.
  8. ↑ Longeway, John (2007). Demonstration and scientific knowledge in William of Ockham: a translation of Summa logicae III-II: De syllogismo demonstrativo, and selections from the prologue to the ordinatio. University of Notre Dame. p. 3. Ockham may reasonably be regarded as the founder of empiricism in the European tradition.
  9. ↑ In manuscripts of Ockham's work his name is spelled in various ways, e.g. "Okan". On the title pages of the modern critical edition his name is taken to be Guillelmus de Ockham (in the genitive case, "Guillelmi de Ockham").
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Courtenay, William J. (23 September 2004). "Ockham, William (c.1287–1347), philosopher, theologian, and political theorist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 31 May 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ↑ Thorndike, Lynn (1949). University Records and Life in the Middle Ages. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 355–360.
  12. ↑ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  13. ↑ During that time (1312–1317) Henry Harclay was the Chancellor of Oxford and it is believed that Ockham was his pupil (see John Marenbon (ed.), Medieval Philosophy, Routledge, 2003, p. 329).
  14. ↑ Brundage, James (2008). "Canon Law in the Law schools". In Hartmann, Wilfried; Pennington, Kenneth (eds.). The history of medieval canon law in the classical period. Catholic University of America Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-8132-1491-7.
  15. 1 2 3 Olson, Roger E. (1999). The Story of Christian Theology, p. 350. ISBN 0-8308-1505-8
  16. ↑ Knysh, George (1986). "Biographical rectifications concerning William's Avignon period". Franciscan Studies. 46: 61–91. doi:10.1353/frc.1986.0020. JSTOR 41975065. S2CID 162369468.
  17. ↑ "William of Occam". wotug.org.
  18. ↑ Hundersmarck, Lawrence (1992). Great Thinkers of the Western World. HarperCollins. pp. 123–128. ISBN 0-06-270026-X.
  19. ↑ "Translations of papal documents relating to the Franciscan idea of poverty". William of Ockham Dialogus. Retrieved 1 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ↑ Ockham, William of (1995). A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780521358040.
  21. 1 2 Spade, Paul Vincent. "William of Ockham". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
  22. ↑ Ockham, William of (2023). On Heretics Books 1-5 and Against John Chapters 5-16. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy. pp. 1, 31–33. ISBN 9780197267592.
  23. ↑ Lucan Freeport, Basis of Morality According to William Ockham, ISBN 978-0-8199-0918-3, Franciscan Herald Press, 1988.
  24. ↑ Dale T. Irvin and Scott W. Sunquist. History of World Christian Movement Volume I: Earliest Christianity to 1453, p. 434. ISBN 978-1-57075-396-1
  25. ↑ The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th ed. Edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 735.
  26. ↑ Baird, Forrest E.; Kaufmann, Walter (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-158591-1.
  27. 1 2  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: William Turner (1913). "William of Ockham". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  28. ↑ Russell, Bertrand (2000). A History of Western Philosophy. Allen & Unwin. pp. 462–463. ISBN 0-415-22854-9.
  29. ↑ Thorburn, W. M. (1918). "The Myth of Occam's Razor". Mind. 27 (107): 345–353. doi:10.1093/mind/XXVII.3.345. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  30. ↑ Spade, Paul Vincent (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Ockham. Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 104.
  31. ↑ André Goddu, The Physics of William of Ockham, ISBN 978-90-04-06912-1, Brill Academic Pub., 1984.
  32. ↑ Brower-Toland, S (2014). "William ockham on the scope and limits of consciousness". Vivarium. 52 (3–4): 197–219. doi:10.1163/15685349-12341275.
  33. 1 2 3 "William of Ockham". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  34. ↑ "William of Ockham: Dialogus". Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi. British Academy. Retrieved 30 May 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  35. ↑ Tierney, Brian (1998). Foundations of the conciliar theory: the contribution of the medieval canonists from Gratian to the Great Schism (Enlarged ed.). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10924-7.
  36. ↑ Scott, John. "Theologians vs Canonists on Heresy". British Academy.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  37. ↑ Takashi Shogimen, Ockham and Political Discourse in the Late Middle Ages. ISBN 978-0-521-84581-6, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  38. 1 2 3 4 Virpi Mäkinen, Keskiajan aatehistoria, Atena Kustannus Oy, Jyväskylä, 2003, ISBN 978-951-796-310-7. pp. 160, 167–168, 202, 204, 207–209.
  39. ↑ Kilcullen, John (1999). "Ockham's Political Writings". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 24 March 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  40. ↑ In his Summa Logicae, part II, sections 32 and 33.Translated on p. 80 of Philosophical Writings, tr. P. Boehner, rev. S. Brown, (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1990)
  41. ↑ Priest, Graham; Read, S. (1977). "The Formalization of Ockham's Theory of Supposition". Mind. LXXXVI (341): 109–113. doi:10.1093/mind/LXXXVI.341.109.
  42. ↑ Corcoran, John; Swiniarski, John (1978). "Logical Structures of Ockham's Theory of Supposition". Franciscan Studies. 38: 161–183. doi:10.1353/frc.1978.0010. JSTOR 41975391. S2CID 170450442.
  43. ↑ John Corcoran (1981). "Ockham's Syllogistic Semantics", Journal of Symbolic Logic, 46: 197–198.
  44. 1 2 3 4 Steel, Carlos (21 June 2001). Porro, Pasquale (ed.). "The Neoplatonic Doctrine of Time and Eternity and its Influence on Medieval Philosophy". The Medieval Concept of Time: 3–31. doi:10.1163/9789004453197_003. ISBN 978-90-04-45319-7.
  45. ↑ "William of Ockham: Defending the Church, Condemning the Pope". PhilosophyNow.org. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  46. ↑ Ford, J.L. (2016). The Divine Quest, East and West: A Comparative Study of Ultimate Realities. State University of New York Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-4384-6055-0. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  47. 1 2 "Ockham (Occam), William of | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  48. ↑ Canning, Joseph (2011). Ideas of Power in the Late Middle Ages, 1296–1417. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-50495-9.
  49. ↑ Thiel, John E. (2000). Senses of Tradition: Continuity and Development in Catholic Faith. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535031-9.
  50. ↑ Heath, J. M. F. (2013). Paul's Visual Piety: The Metamorphosis of the Beholder. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-966414-6.
  51. ↑ McGregor, Peter John; Rowland, Tracey (2022). Healing Fractures in Contemporary Theology. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-7252-6610-0.
  52. 1 2 3 "Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham in Papal Plenitudo Potestatis" (PDF). Archived from the original on 24 March 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  53. ↑ Manuel Mendez Alonzo (2013). "Natural liberty and transference of sovereignty in William" (PDF). Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval (20): 66. Retrieved 24 March 2025 – via Academia.
  54. ↑ "The Right to Be Poor". Philosophy Now. No. 118. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  55. ↑ "William of Ockham". Britannica. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  56. ↑ Stanley J. Grenz. The Named God and the Question of Being: A Trinitarian Theo-Ontology.
  57. ↑
    • William H. Watts and Richard J. Utz, "Nominalist Influence on Chaucer's Poetry: A Bibliographical Essay", Medievalia & Humanistica 20 n.s. (1993), 147–173.
    • Helen Ruth Andretta, Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde'. A Poet's Response to Ockhamism (New York: Lang, 1997).
    • Richard Utz, ed., Literary Nominalism and the Theory of Rereading Late Medieval Texts: A New Research Paradigm. Lewiston, New York: Mellen, 1995.
    • Nominalism and Literary Discourse: New Perspectives. Ed. Hugo Keiper, R. Utz, and Christoph Bode. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1997.
  58. ↑ "Fallacies: Part 3, Book 4 of Summa Logicae". Sunny Lou Publishing. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  59. ↑ "Jonathan Robinson". individual.utoronto.ca.

Further reading

edit
edit

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_of_Ockham&oldid=1357329791"