William of Ockham

| education = Greyfriars, London

| alma_mater = University of Oxford Adam de Wodeham, Gregory of Rimini, John Wycliffe, Gabriel Biel, Martin Luther, Henry VIII, John Calvin, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, Edmund Burke, Joseph De Maistre, Bertrand Russell

| notable_ideas =

William of Ockham or Occam ( ; ; 9/10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher and theologian, born probably in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. 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. 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.

Life

William of Ockham was born probably in Ockham, Surrey, around 1287. 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 . (An was someone recognized by the university as qualified to begin ("incept") as a regent master).

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. Ockham's disputations on the Sentences were held probably in the years 1317-1319. The accusation of heresy may have been made by the former Oxford chancellor John Lutterell. The Pope, Pope John XXII, directed Lutterell to prepare a collection of suspect passages and appointed a committee of theologians to review them.

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. 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". 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 had the Pope's approval to become Emperor.

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. The writings Ockham published during those years are often called his "political writings", because they deal with many matters relevant to political philosophy. William of Ockham died (just before the outbreak in Munich of the Black Death) on either 9 or 10 April 1347.

Philosophical thought

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. However, he also reacted to and against Scotus in the areas of predestination, penance, his understanding of universals, his formal distinction (that is, "as applied to created things"), and his view of parsimony which became known as Occam's razor.

Faith and reason

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." He believed that science was a matter of discovery and saw God as the only ontological necessity.

Nominalism

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. He denied the real existence of metaphysical universals and advocated the reduction of ontology.

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.

Efficient reasoning

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, 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——although this well-known formulation of the principle is not to be found in any of Ockham's extant writings. 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." 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. 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

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.

Political theory

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. He was one of the first medieval authors to advocate a form of church/state separation, greatly influenced the Conciliar movement. 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.

Ockham argued for complete separation of spiritual rule and earthly rule. 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.

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.

Logic

In logic, William of Ockham wrote down in words the formulae that would later be called De Morgan's laws, 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. 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.

Philosophy of Time

William of Ockham believed that eternity was exclusive to God. He rejected the concept of the aevum as a special measure of duration of for angels. As a result, some theologians have viewed him as a proto-Protestant. However, despite his conflicts with the papacy he did not renounce the Roman Catholic Church. 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. He thus foreshadowed some elements of Luther's view of sola scriptura.

Church and State

Ockham taught the separation of church and state, believing that the pope and emperor should be separate. (e.g. popular sovereignty).

Apostolic poverty

Ockham advocated for voluntary poverty.

Soul

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.

Voluntarism

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.

Literary Ockhamism/nominalism

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. Erasmus, in his Praise of Folly, criticized him together with Duns Scotus as fuelling unnecessary controversies inside the Church.

Works

thumb|upright=1.25|Sketch labelled , from a manuscript of Ockham's , 1341

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The standard edition of the philosophical and theological works is: William of Ockham: , Gedeon Gál, et al., eds. 17 vols. St. Bonaventure, New York: The Franciscan Institute, 1967–1988. Abbreviations: OT = vol. 1–10; OP = vol. 1–7.

OP 7 contains the doubtful and spurious works.

The political works, all but the , have been edited in H. S. Offler, et al., eds. , 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

(Sum of Logic) (c. 1323, OP 1).
, 1321–1324, OP 2).
, 1321–1324, OP 2).
, 1321–1324, OP 2).
, 1321–1324, OP 2).
(Treatise on Predestination and God's Foreknowledge with respect to Future Contingents, 1322–1324, OP 2).
(Exposition of Aristotle's Sophistic refutations, 1322–1324, OP 3).
(Exposition of Aristotle's Physics) (1322–1324, OP 4).
(Exposition of Aristotle's Physics) (1322–1324, OP 5).
(Brief Summa of the Physics, 1322–23, OP 6).
(Little Summa of Natural Philosophy, 1319–1321, OP 6).
(Questions on Aristotle's Books of the Physics, before 1324, OP 6).

Theological writings

(Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard).
Book I () completed shortly after July 1318 (OT 1–4).
Books II–IV () 1317–18 (transcription of the lectures; OT 5–7).
(OT 8).
(before 1327) (OT 9).
(1323–24. OT 10).
(1323–24, OT 10).

Political writings

(1332–1334).
(1334).
(before 1335).
[XXII] (1335).
[XII] (1337–38).
(1340–41).
(1341–42).
(1341–42).
[also known as ] (1346–47).

Doubtful writings

(Lesser Treatise on logic) (1340–1347?, OP 7).
(Primer of logic) (1340–1347?, OP 7).

Spurious writings

(OP 7).
(OP 7).
(OP 7).
(OP 7).

Translations

Philosophical works

Philosophical Writings, tr. P. Boehner, rev. S. Brown (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1990)
Ockham's Theory of Terms: Part I of the , translated by Michael J. Loux (Notre Dame; London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974) [translation of , part 1]
Ockham's Theory of Propositions: Part II of the , translated by Alfred J. Freddoso and Henry Schuurman (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1980) [translation of , part 2]
Demonstration and Scientific Knowledge in William of Ockham: a Translation of III-II, , and Selections from the Prologue to the , translated by John Lee Longeway (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2007)
Falacies: Part 3, Book 4 of , translated by Richard Robinson (Sunny Lou Publishing, 2025.)
Ockham on Aristotle's Physics: A Translation of Ockham's , 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, , and 34, pp. 306–382, (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 ]
Quodlibetal Questions, translated by Alfred J. Freddoso and Francis E. Kelley, 2 vols (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1991) (translation of )
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 d. 2 qq. 4–8]
, translated in A compendium of Ockham's teachings: a translation of the , translated by Julian Davies (St. Bonaventure, New York: Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University, 1998)

Theological works

The 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

, 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 ]
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 ; 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 ]
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

In fiction

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.

Notes

References

External links

Mediaeval Logic and Philosophy, maintained by Paul Vincent Spade
William of Ockham at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
William of Ockham biography at University of St Andrews, Scotland
Dialogus, text translation and studies at British Academy, UK
Ockham, various articles by John Kilcullen
The Nominalist Ontology of William of Ockham, with an annotated bibliography
Richard Utz and Terry Barakat, "Medieval Nominalism and the Literary Questions: Selected Studies." Perspicuitas
The Myth of Occam's Razor by William M. Thorburn (1918)
BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' programme on Ockham Download and listen