The Cambridge companion to Ockham
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (US) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780521582445 |
| Open Library | OL19454130W |
| Total publications | 12 |
| Coverage period | 1999 - 1999 |
| Language | EN |
The Franciscan William of Ockham (c. 1288–1347) was an English medieval philosopher, theologian, and political theorist. Along with Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, he is regarded as one of the three main figures in medieval philosophy after around 1150. Ockham is important not only in the history of philosophy and theology, but also in the development of early modern science and of modern notions of property rights and church-state relations. This volume offers a full discussion of all significant aspects of Ockham's thought: logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics and natural philosophy, epistemology, ethics, action theory, political thought and theology. It is the first study of Ockham in any language to make full use of the new critical editions of his works, and to consider recent discoveries concerning his life, education, and influences.
The Cambridge companion to Ockham
The Mechanisms of Cognition
After the death of Thomas Aquinas and well into the fourteenth century, medieval philosophers strenuously debated the nature of human cognition and the means by which it is achieved. Ockham took a radical stand in that debate, rejecting the widely accepted view at the heart of Aquinas's account, namely, that cognition is mediated by intelligible and sensible species. (I will explain this technical use of 'species' in Section I.) In a variety of t…
Semantics and Mental Language
At the outset of SL, Ockham endorses Boethius's old distinction between three sorts of discourse: written, spoken, and mental. The first two, he explains, are physically perceptible, whether by the eye or by the ear, and are made up of conventional signs. The units of mental language, by contrast, are concepts. They are internal to thinking minds, and their signification is natural rather than conventional. Being mental, they are not directly per…
The Political Writings
In the year 1328 Ockham and certain leading members of the Franciscan order became convinced that the pope of the day, Pope John XXII, was a heretic and therefore no pope. From then until his death in 1347 Ockham wrote nothing more (or almost nothing) on logic, natural philosophy, or speculative philosophy but produced a large body of books and pamphlets, commonly called his "political" writings, advocating the deposition of John XXII and his suc…
Ockham's Misunderstood Theory of Intuitive and Abstractive Cognition
In 1943, Philotheus Boehner, the distinguished Ockham scholar, published an article entitled “The Notitia Intuitiva of Non-existents according to William Ockham,” an article that has been extremely influential ever since.
Some Aspects of Ockham's Logic
Medieval logic begins for most purposes with the work of Boethius, who attempted a Latin rendering of the standard late-antique Greek logic course. As the Boethian treatises began to be more widely studied in the ninth and tenth centuries, an indigenous Latin tradition in logic developed that reached its zenith during the twelfth century in the work of figures like Peter Abelard. It was within this indigenous tradition that the major developments…
Ockham's Repudiation of Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a heresy first defined in reaction to the views of the monk Pelagius in the fifth century and attacked by Saint Augustine. In the centuries since Pelagius's defeat, theologians have repeatedly stigmatized their opponents as Pelagians. Such disputes typically pit those who emphasize predestination and original sin against those who believe in human free will and human capacity for goodness. But seldom are the arguments in these deba…
Ockham's Ethical Theory
William of Ockham presents his ethical theory not systematically but in remarks and discussions scattered throughout his writings, a fact that has obscured the structure of his views. He worked within a tradition of moral philosophy that took the basic normative principles to be given in the Bible and the conceptual tools of moral theory to be given by Aristotle; with these materials he put forward an original, powerful, and subtle theory. Ockham…
Ockhams' Nominalist Metaphysics
The first thing one learns about William of Ockham's philosophy is usually that he was a "nominalist." But sometimes it is not explained just what Ockham's nominalism was. For medieval nominalism, like its modern namesake, took many sometimes surprising forms.
The Academic and Intellectual Worlds of Ockham
William of Ockham has long been considered one of the foremost figures in the history of medieval philosophy and theology. As such his thought is often contrasted with that of the other seminal thinkers of High Scholasticism: Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, Giles of Rome, and John Duns Scotus, as if those were the appropriate and sufficient voices of debate within which Ockham's thought was developed. The completion of the critical edition of Ock…
Ockham on Faith and Reason
Analytic philosophers specializing in medieval philosophy have tended to focus on those aspects of Catholic medieval thought that seem relevant to research programs already firmly established within the mainstream of contemporary academic philosophy. In this way they have tried to convince other philosophers that the Catholic medieval thinkers, despite their theological presuppositions, have something useful to contribute to current discussions. …
Ockham's Semantics and Ontology of the Categories
Ockham's treatment of the ten Aristotelian categories plays a crucial role in his innovative nominalist program. One of his main complaints against "the moderns," as he is wont to call his opponents, is that they treat the categories as comprising ten mutually exclusive classes of distinct entities. Indeed, the unknown author of a work written against Ockham's logic (characteristically entitled "A very useful and realist logic of Campsall the Eng…
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The Cambridge companion to Ockham
The Mechanisms of Cognition
After the death of Thomas Aquinas and well into the fourteenth century, medieval philosophers strenuously debated the nature of human cognition and the means by which it is achieved. Ockham took a radical stand in that debate, rejecting the widely accepted view at the heart of Aquinas's account, namely, that cognition is mediated by intelligible and sensible species. (I will explain this technical use of 'species' in Section I.) In a variety of t…
Semantics and Mental Language
At the outset of SL, Ockham endorses Boethius's old distinction between three sorts of discourse: written, spoken, and mental. The first two, he explains, are physically perceptible, whether by the eye or by the ear, and are made up of conventional signs. The units of mental language, by contrast, are concepts. They are internal to thinking minds, and their signification is natural rather than conventional. Being mental, they are not directly per…
The Political Writings
In the year 1328 Ockham and certain leading members of the Franciscan order became convinced that the pope of the day, Pope John XXII, was a heretic and therefore no pope. From then until his death in 1347 Ockham wrote nothing more (or almost nothing) on logic, natural philosophy, or speculative philosophy but produced a large body of books and pamphlets, commonly called his "political" writings, advocating the deposition of John XXII and his suc…
Ockham's Misunderstood Theory of Intuitive and Abstractive Cognition
In 1943, Philotheus Boehner, the distinguished Ockham scholar, published an article entitled “The Notitia Intuitiva of Non-existents according to William Ockham,” an article that has been extremely influential ever since.
Some Aspects of Ockham's Logic
Medieval logic begins for most purposes with the work of Boethius, who attempted a Latin rendering of the standard late-antique Greek logic course. As the Boethian treatises began to be more widely studied in the ninth and tenth centuries, an indigenous Latin tradition in logic developed that reached its zenith during the twelfth century in the work of figures like Peter Abelard. It was within this indigenous tradition that the major developments…
Ockham's Repudiation of Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a heresy first defined in reaction to the views of the monk Pelagius in the fifth century and attacked by Saint Augustine. In the centuries since Pelagius's defeat, theologians have repeatedly stigmatized their opponents as Pelagians. Such disputes typically pit those who emphasize predestination and original sin against those who believe in human free will and human capacity for goodness. But seldom are the arguments in these deba…
Ockham's Ethical Theory
William of Ockham presents his ethical theory not systematically but in remarks and discussions scattered throughout his writings, a fact that has obscured the structure of his views. He worked within a tradition of moral philosophy that took the basic normative principles to be given in the Bible and the conceptual tools of moral theory to be given by Aristotle; with these materials he put forward an original, powerful, and subtle theory. Ockham…
Ockhams' Nominalist Metaphysics
The first thing one learns about William of Ockham's philosophy is usually that he was a "nominalist." But sometimes it is not explained just what Ockham's nominalism was. For medieval nominalism, like its modern namesake, took many sometimes surprising forms.
The Academic and Intellectual Worlds of Ockham
William of Ockham has long been considered one of the foremost figures in the history of medieval philosophy and theology. As such his thought is often contrasted with that of the other seminal thinkers of High Scholasticism: Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, Giles of Rome, and John Duns Scotus, as if those were the appropriate and sufficient voices of debate within which Ockham's thought was developed. The completion of the critical edition of Ock…
Ockham on Faith and Reason
Analytic philosophers specializing in medieval philosophy have tended to focus on those aspects of Catholic medieval thought that seem relevant to research programs already firmly established within the mainstream of contemporary academic philosophy. In this way they have tried to convince other philosophers that the Catholic medieval thinkers, despite their theological presuppositions, have something useful to contribute to current discussions. …
Ockham's Semantics and Ontology of the Categories
Ockham's treatment of the ten Aristotelian categories plays a crucial role in his innovative nominalist program. One of his main complaints against "the moderns," as he is wont to call his opponents, is that they treat the categories as comprising ten mutually exclusive classes of distinct entities. Indeed, the unknown author of a work written against Ockham's logic (characteristically entitled "A very useful and realist logic of Campsall the Eng…