William of Ockham

William of Ockham

Background on OckhamLived from 1280 to 1349

Born in the town of Ockham in Surrey, England

Member of Franciscan order

Studied theology at Oxford

Awesome with logic

A few definitionsUniversals: a common name for objects or things, like redness or wealthMetaphysical: beyond the physical realmNominalism: theory of mind and language; universals are just names for convenient categorizations of the world for realistic interaction with themEmpiricism: true knowledge only comes through the sensesThe concept of the living thing subsumed under intuition is the animal. For since this subsumption itself is one-sided, not intuition subsumed under the concept in the like way over again, life here is an empirically real, infinitely dispersed life, displaying itself in the most manifold forms. For the form or the absolute concept is not itself unity or universality again. Thus here there is an individuality without intelligence, not, as in the case of the plant, where each unit of the individual is itself a mass of such units; on the contrary, here there is indifference in more extended difference and distinction.-Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelOckham was all about SimplicityOckhams Razor

Way of thinking that would guide empiricists in the future and influence the scientific method

Plurality is not to be assumed without necessity, Do not multiply entities beyond necessity

The simple over the complicatedExamples of the RazorHow a watch works

Examples of the RazorMoms not home

Razor contd Many thought he was trying to do away with the Trinity

ACTUALLY, he was trying to eliminate metaphysics and prevent any limits to be set on Gods true power

His thoughts strengthened theology: prevented metaphysical ideas

His empiricism The only trustworthy knowledge available to man was revealed knowledge or knowledge acquired through the senses

Therefore, theres no such thing as the metaphysicalMore of His philosophyHis logic went against Aristotle and his formal and final causes

He wanted a mechanistic view of causality: parts affecting parts, like a machine

Disallowed traditional proofs of Gods existence