William of Ockham

William Ockham
Born	1288 England
Died	1347 Munich, Germany Black Death
Occupation	Philosopher
Contact	{{{contact}}}

William of Ockham was an English Franciscan and scholastic philosopher, from Ockham, a small village in Surrey, in England. He is considered, along with Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, to be one of the major figures of medieval thought. Commonly known for Ockham's Razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, Ockham also produced important works on logic, physics, and theology. In the Church of England, his commemoration day is April 10.

Philosophy

The methodological principles that underlie Ockham's philosophy, and which are frequently appealed to by him, are as follows. First, the world is composed of singulars, each of which exists of itself or through itself (per se). Ockham thus denies the medieval theory of universals, according to which universals (objects supposedly signified by common terms like 'man', 'donkey') are really existing things outside the mind, distinct from the individual. Second; if any two things in the created world are really distinct, then it is possible through God's power (per divinam potentiam) to separate them. Third, the so-called Ockham's Razor - do not multiply entities merely in accordance with the multiplicity of names. This is the principle which underscores Ockham's nominalism. Fourth, do not make any statement unless it is either self-evident, a teaching of sacred scripture, or evident from sense-experience, or is logically deducible from these.

Work

Ockham published several philosophical works before he was summoned to the Papal Court in 1323 on charges of heresy. The first was his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, a standard requirement for medieval theology students, who would comment on this famous book of opinions (sententia) on certain controversial or difficult theological statements. Ockham also wrote several commentaries on Aristotle's works, and published his debates on 'Quodlibetal questions' (i.e. questions on any subject you like).

Ockham’s great work is Summa of Logic, which is partly a treatise or manual of logic, partly a work of metaphysics which resolves many great philosophical questions to matters of logic and language. it is the last of his 'academic' works.

After his quarrel with the papacy, Ockham wrote and circulated several political works unofficially, the most important of which is his Dialogue on the Power of the Emperor and the Pope. All of his works have been edited into modern critical editions but not all have been translated into English

Commentary on the sentences

Book I survives in an ordinatio or revised and corrected version, approved by the author himself for publication. Books II-IV survive only as a reportatio a transcript of lectures, taken down by a 'reporter', without the benefit of later revisions or corrections by the author.

Quaestiones et decisiones in IV libros Sententiarum, published by Ioannes Trechsel, Lyon 1495.

Commentaries on the old logic (1321-24)

Commentaries on Porphyry's Isagoge and of Aristotle's Categories, On Interpretation, and Sophistic Refutations .

Kluge, Eike-Henner W., trans. 1973-74. “William of Ockham's Commentary on Porphyry: Introduction and English Translation.” Franciscan Studies 33, pp. 171-254, and 34, pp. 306-82.

Summa of Logic

Latin: Summa Logicae

Loux, Michael J. 1974. Ockham's Theory of Terms: Part I of the Summa Logicae. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press. Complete Translation.

Freddoso, Alfred J., and Schuurman, Henry, trans. 1980. Ockham's Theory of Propositions: Part II of the Summa logicae. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.

Treatise on Predestination (1321-24).

Treatise on Predestination and God's Foreknowledge with Respect to Future Contingents

Adams, Marilyn McCord, and Kretzmann, Norman, trans. 1983. William of Ockham: Predestination, God's Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett.

Quodlibetal Questions 1322-24

The seven Quodlibeta are probably the record of disputations held in the Franciscan house near London where Ockham taught after finishing at Oxford. The disputations probably took place between the Autumn of 1322 and 1324, between Ockham and his critic Walter Chatton. The disputed subjects range from grammar and logic to metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. The work was revised by Ockham in Avignon 1324-25.

Quodlibeta Septem, edited by Joseph C. Wey, C.S.B. St. Bonaventura University, NY, 1980, 838pp.

Freddoso, Alfred J., and Kelly, Francis E., trans. 1991. Quodlibetal Questions. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.

Commentaries on the Physics (1322-24)

Latin title: Brevis Summa Libri Physicorum

This is a short summary of Aristotle's book Physics.

• Opera Philosophica, St Bonaventura NY: vol VI.
• Davies, Julian, trans. 1989. Ockham on Aristotle's Physics: A Translation of Ockham's Brevis Summa Libri Physicorum. St. Bonaventure, N. Y.: The Franciscan Institute. Complete translation of the Brief Summa of the Physics.

Questions on Aristotle's Books of the Physics (before 1324)

Work of Ninety Days (1332-34)

Latin: Latin: Opus nonaginta dierum

Work of Ninety Days Vol. 1 This was Ockham’s first major work in a twenty-year campaign against Pope John XXII. It is a critical commentary on the Pope’s document Quia vir reprobus. It includes a thorough discussion of the place of voluntary poverty in religious life, the place of property in civil life, and its relation to natural rights and human law. "Ockham dissects with remorseless logic and barely concealed moral outrage an edict of Pope John XXII that had condemned Michael of Cesena, head of the Franciscan Order for daring to defend the traditional Franciscan position that property could be used without being owned. "

ISBN10: 0-7734-7528-1 ISBN13: 978-0-7734-7528-1 Pages: 496 Year: 2001 A Translation of William of Ockham’s Work of Ninety Days Vol. 1 Kilcullen, John

Edwin Mellen Press 2001

Dialogue (c. 1334-46)

The book pretends to be a transcript made by a mature student of lengthy discussions between himself and a university master about the various opinions of the learned on the matters disputed between John XXII and the dissident Franciscans. The student is the initiator; he chooses the topics, asks the questions and decides when he has heard enough. The master is, so to speak, an expert witness whom the student examines.

All this implies--and Ockham repeatedly underscores the point--that a pope's orthodoxy is as much open to scrutiny as that of any ordinary Christian, and a pope is not entitled to use the power of his office to evade such scrutiny.

Part 1 of the Dialogue is clearly Ockham’s master political work, both in terms of quantity and dialectical quality. It is of enormous length (exceeding the Work of Ninety Days by a considerable margin), and is the only segment of the Dialogue he seems to have completed in its entirety. It was more popular in the late Middle Ages than Part 3, and it is here that Ockham’s fundamental message of constitutional responsibility, as well as his sense of active inclusive citizenship, were most forcibly conveyed to his readers.

Part 2 of the Dialogue (which we refer to as "2 Dial.) as we have it does not really belong to this work at all. It is not in dialogue form. It seems to be two short "assertive" works which someone (probably not Ockham) has inserted in place of a Part 2 that was either never written or lost. Its purpose is to show that John XXII held heretical doctrines concerning the Beatific Vision, attempted to impose them, and was therefore pertinacious and a heretic. This new issue had arisen in late 1331 and early 1332, as the result of some sermons where John had questioned the traditional view on this matter.

Part 3 is divided into two "tracts". Ockham had in fact planned to compose as many as six additional "tracts" in this Part, outlining the deeds of all major participants in the conflict, himself included. None of these have yet come to light, if they were ever written. Tract 1 (On the power of the pope and clergy, which which we refer to as "3.1 Dial.") is about the rights of the pope and clergy, tract 2 (On the power and rights of the Roman empire, which we refer to as "3.2 Dial.") is about the rights of the Roman Emperor.

According to Kilcullen "Ockham's Dialogue deserves a place beside Marsilius's Defensor Pacis, Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Hobbes's Leviathan and Locke's Two Treatises, among the classics of political thought."

Dialogus, LATIN TEXT AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION edited by John Kilcullen, George Knysh, Volker Leppin, John Scott and Jan Ballweg, under the auspices of the Medieval Texts Editorial Committee of the British Academy here http://www.britac.ac.uk/pubS/dialogus/ockdial.html

Letter to the Friars Minor (1334)

The Letter to the Friars Minor was addressed to the 1334 general meeting of the Franciscan Order (i.e. of those who had submitted to the pope), explaining why Ockham was not with them.

McGrade, A. S., and Kilcullen, John, ed. & trans. 1995. A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Translation of several of Ockham's political writings, including the Letter to the Friars Minor, Eight Questions on the Power of the Pope, and The Work of Ninety Days.

Eight Questions on the Power of the Pope

Eight Questions on the Power of the Pope (1340-41).

Eight Questions on the Power of the Pope, reporting and comparing various opinions on the powers of the pope in relation to the Roman Empire.

Notability

This philosopher has 17 pages in the Blackwell Companion.