Ockham William of
NAME: Ockham, William of
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Famous for ‘Ockham’s Razor,’ a way of thinking.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: William Ockham (also spelled Occam); Venerabilis Inceptor (Venerable Beginner); Doctor Invincibilis (Doctor Invincible)
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: c. 1285, Ockham, Surrey, England
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: c. 1347/49, Munich, Bavaria [now in Germany]. Aged about 63
DISCIPLINE: Philosopher/Theologian
FIELD: Philosophy/Theology
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Unknown
SIBLINGS: Unknown
SPOUSE: None
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: University of Oxford, England
MAJOR WORK: "Summa logicae"
LIFE AND TIMES:
Almost nothing is known of Ockham's early life, although it is supposed that he became a Franciscan friar at an early age. In 1310, when he would have been about 25, he enrolled at Merton College, Oxford University, as a student of theology. He earned his degree c. 1319 by lecturing on the "Four Books of Sentences" by 12th century theologian <lectured on> Lombard*. ("Sentences" was the official textbook of theology until the 16th century.)
Ockham was a vigorous, critical, and independent thinker. His basic aim was to simplify doctrine, and to this end preached an axiom that came to be called "Ockham's Razor": "Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate" ("the fewer the assumptions, the better the explanation.")
His best-known contribution to Scholastic philosophy was his elimination of the theory of universals (abstract concepts representing the common elements of individuals of the same genus or species), which was inherited by the Christian world from the Greeks. Abelard, in his attack on the Realists (who held that universals existed separately from the individuals in which they were embodied) called universals "names" as opposed to "things", and proposed a theory of "nominalism", a theory of knowledge that denied reality to universal concepts.
Ockham took <modifoed ideas of> Abelard's* "nominalism" a stage further, arguing that universals existed only in the human mind, and that universals were only a way of conceiving of individual things. In reality, abstract universals (and abstractions in general) had no existence; only individual things existed, and real things (called "particulars") were known by intuition, and not by abstraction.
In the fully-developed version of Ockham's theory, he admitted that the abstract (“universals”) concepts of species and genera had a representative function, but were identified with certain mental qualities called general concepts, which naturally signified many different individuals (the way the concept "horse" naturally signifies all singular horses).
By Oakham's nominalist doctrine whatever existed was individual, our knowledge of things was based on a direct and immediate awareness of what was present to our senses and intellect (what Ockham called intuitive cognition), and this validated science as objective knowledge established by inductive generalization from singular judgments based on experience of the world, without having to postulating mysterious universal entities somewhere else.
Ockham's rejection of universals also had a theological aspect. He believed that universals, if they existed, would limit God's omnipotence. In his theology, much of Ockham's thinking was determined by a resolute attempt to do away with anything that limited God's omnipotence and freedom; while in his moral and political philosophy he would later apply the same criteria of divine freedom and omnipotence to argue against the claims of the Pope and Emperor to absolute power and dominion over members of the church or citizens of the state.
Ockham drew a sharper dividing line than most Christian scholastics before him between theological speculation based on revelation, and the natural sciences in the Aristotelian sense, which are based on empirical evidence and self-evident principles. He wanted to maintain this clear-cut principle through all theoretical and practical knowledge, including ethics and political reasoning.
However, his controversial opinions (particularly his criticisms of the doctrines of <criticized ideas of> Duns Scotus*) brought strong opposition from members of the theological faculty of Oxford, and in 1323 John Lutterell, the former chancellor of Oxford University (dismissed from his post in 1322), went to the Papal court at Avignon to press charges of heretical teaching against Ockham.
Ockham was summoned to Avignon to answer these accusations early in 1324, and because he was forced to leave the university without obtaining his master's degree in theology (and never receiving a license to teach) he came to be known as "venerabilis inceptor", or "the venerable beginner."
At Avignon, staying at the Franciscan convent to await trial (1324 to 1328), Ockham is believed to have written several of his most important theological and philosophical works.
One of these was the "Quodlibeta septem", which contained 172 questions and answers on theological and philosophical topics, giving a clear idea of Ockham's distinctive philosophical position. Another was his commentary on Lombard's "Sentences", and yet another was a commentary on <wrote commentary on> Aristotle*.
A commission of six theologians (which included Lutterell) appointed by Pope John XXII censured 51 propositions of Ockham's writings, but the expected formal condemnation never materialized.
In December, 1327, Ockham became involved in a serious theological dispute that forced him to leave Avignon. On the request of Michael of Cesena, Minister-General of the Franciscans, Ockham examined the Papal position and concluded that Pope John XXII's position was heretical.
In May, 1328, when it became clear that the Pope was about to strike, Ockham, Cesena, and two other Franciscan leaders fled to Pisa. They remained under the protection of Emperor Louis IX of Bavaria (himself in conflict with the Pope over the claim to the imperial crown, and who had been excommunicated in 1324). The Pope excommunicated Ockham and his companions, not for heretical doctrines, but for disobedience.
However, when Louis of Bavaria died in 1347, the contest with the Avignon Papacy became a lost cause, and Ockham appears to have sought reconciliation with the Franciscans who remained loyal to the Pope.
During the 1340s, Ockham wrote two treatises on logic, the more important being his "Summa logicae," which gave full expression to his own philosophy of language and logical doctrines, and contributed to the development of formal logic. In all probability, Ockham died at a convent in Munich in 1349 during the Black Death, and was buried in the Franciscan church in Munich.
ASSESSMENT: His influence is clearly seen in the empiricist doctrines of 17th-century English philosophers.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: He <influenced> Locke* and <influenced> Hume*.
German clerical reformist <a follower was> Luther* regarded himself as a follower of Ockham.
He influenced <influenced> Newton*
He taught <taught> Buridan*
His work related to that of <work related to> Aquinas*
ONELINER: William of Ockham, of “Ockham’s Razor.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DSB
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church