William of Ockham or Occam ( OK-əm; Latin: Guillelmus de Ockham; c. 1287 – 9/10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher and theologian. 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. At an early age he became a member of the Franciscan Order (Order of Friars Minor) and received the first stages of his theological education in the Franciscan school in London. From some undetermined date until probably 1321 he studied in the Franciscan school in the University of Oxford. Although he completed all the requirements for a master's degree in theology, he never was 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.) 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. 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. 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. (An alternative hypothesis, recently proposed by George Knysh, is 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.) The Pope, Pope John XXII, directed former Oxford chancellor John Lutterell, 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. The committee's preliminary reports were critical, but the process was never brought to a conclusion. 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), so that provision of consumables was a transfer of ownership. He also argued that it was not possible to transfer durables 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 obtained the Pope's approval to become Emperor. On June 6, 1328, Ockham and the other dissidents were excommunicated for leaving Avignon without permission. 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" (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. William of Ockham died probably on either 9 or 10 April 1347 (just before the outbreak in Munich of the Black Death).
Philosophical thought
Ockham incorporated much of the work of some previous theologians, especially Duns Scotus. From Scotus Ockham derived his view of divine omnipotence, his view of grace and justification, much of his epistemology and ethics. He disagreed with Scotus about predestination, penance, universals, and the formal distinction ex parte rei ("on the part of the thing") in creatures.
Faith and reason William of Ockham held that theology is not a science. "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." Science includes empirical knowledge and conclusions demonstrated from self-evident premises.
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