Synopsis
OCCAM, William (Qulielmus Occamus, or
Ochamus), b. about 1280, in the village of Occam (Ockham, or Oksham), in the
county of Surrey, Eng.; d. in Munich, April 10, 1347 (or 1349). As the
principal source to his life (the pars iii. tract. 8, of his Dialogus in tres panes distinctus) has perished, many details,
especially of his earlier life, are very uncertain. He is said to have studied
at Merton College, Oxford, and to have obtained, in 1300 the archdeanery of
Stowe in Lincolnshire, besides other ecclesiastical benefices, which, however,
he resigned on entering the order of the Franciscans. Shortly after, he went to Paris, where
he studied under Duns Scotus, began to teach
philosophy and theology himself, and acquired the surnames of Venerabilis
inceptor, Doctor singularis et invincibilis, Princeps et caput nominaliam.
As the reviver of nominalisin, and breaking completely with the opposite
doctrine of realism, which had been sole ruler in philosophy since the days of Anselm and the Victorines, he encountered much
resistance. In 1339 his views were even forbidden to be taught in the
university of Paris. But he also found many enthusiastic friends, such as
Marsilius of Padua, Jean of Jandun, John Buridan, and others. At what time he
returned to England is not known; but in 1322 he was provincial of his order
there, and as such he became implicated in controversies much iones, Lyons,
1483, and often; Quodlibela septem,. more dangerous than those his philosophy
had caused. it is not probable that he took any part in the quarrel between
Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII. The Disputatio inter clenicum et
militem is, at all events, not by him. But at the general Franciscan
convention at Perugia, in 1322, he, together with the general, Michael of
Cesena, and the brother, Bonagratia of Berganio, vindicated, against the
decision of the Pope, the strict view of the order, that Christ and the
apostles had iiever held property. They were all three summoned to Avignon; and, as they would not yield, they were
kept in prison there for four years (1324-26). Finally, a formal process was
instituted against them; but in the night of May 25, 1328, they succeeded in
escaping, and fled to Italy, where they were well received by the emperor,
Lewis the Bavarian, and his antipope, Nicholas V. When the emperor, in 1330,
was compelled to leave italy, and retired to Bavaria, Occam and his
fellow-sufferers followed him, and settled in Munich. There he spent the rest
of his life, developing a most astonishing literary activity, directly
attacking the Pope and the Papacy. As time went on,
however, he became more and more lonesome (some of his friends died, others
made their peace with the Pope), and lonesomeness finally made him more pliant.
He made overtures for reconciliation, and they were eagerly accepted; but it is
uncertain whether he ever signed the formula of recantation demanded by the
Pope. See WADDING: Ann. Ord. Min., Rome, 1050, viii. 2; and JAcoims DE
MARCHIA, Dialogus contra Fraticellos, in BALUZE, Miscell., who
denies it.
Occam was a critic by nature. From a
criticism of the reigning realism in philosophy, he went on to a criticism of
the dogmatical tradition of the church, and thence to the criticism of the
ecciesiastico-political views of his age; always free, sharp, consistent, and
yet pious, orthodox to stiffness, ascetic even to fanaticism; always clear and
precise in his fundamental conceptions, but lengthy and heavy in his
dialectical exposition; sometimes flashing like lightning, but often obscure on
account of abstruseness and subtlety. Of his philosophical works, which have
great interest for the history of medieval philosophy, but are only imperfectly
known, the principal are, Expositio aurea, Bologna, 1496, a series of
commentaries on Porphyry and Aristotle, and
containing a full representation of his logic and dialectics; Summa
logices, Paris, 1448, Bologna, 1498, Venice, 1508, Oxford, 1675; Major
summa logices, Venice, 1521, etc. From his philosophy followed his theology
as a natural consequence. The reality of the universalia he denied
(ante rem, in re, post rem); but, when the thing and the idea are not
equally real, that absolute congruity of reason and faith, of science and
religion, always pre-supposed by realism, must be an illusion. From this
premise Occam subjected the dogmas of the church to a most scorching criticism;
not, by any means, for the purpose of overthrowing them, or weakening their
influence, but simply in order to show that the two spheres - that of
experience and that of authority - are so absolutely different,. that the
principles by which the one is ruled are entirely inapplicable to the other.
His principal theological works are, Questiones earumque decisiones,
Lyons, 1483, and often; Quodlibeta septem, Paris, 1487, Strassburg,
1491; Centilogium, Lyons, 1494, a collection of piquant examples rather than
abstract problems; De sacramento altaris, Strassburg, 1491, Venice,
1516, etc. But by far the most numerous, and, in historical respect, also the
most important, group of his writings is the ecclesiastico-political, called
forth by the controversy between the Franciscan
order and the Papacy, and the contest between the emperor, Lewis the
Bavarian, and the popes John XXII., Benediet XII., and Clement VI. The maxim
resulting from his theological criticism, that, in the Christian Church, the
highest, the absolute authority is vested in the Bible, led him to a crushing criticism of the manifold
pretensions, dogmatical and political, made by the Pope. As above mentioned,
the Disputatio inter clericum et militem is not by him, Of undoubted
genuineness are, Opus nonaginta dierum, written in ninety days, between
1330 and 1332, against the decision of John XXII. in the property question,
afterwards incorporated with the third part of his Dialogus, first
printed at Lyons, 1405; Tractatus de dogmatibus Johannis XXII., written
in 1333-34, against a sermon of the Pope on the state of the departed souls
before the resurrection, afterwards incorporated with the second part of his Dialogus. Compendium errorum Joannis XXII., Paris, 1476, Lyons,
1495, written between 1335 and 1338, after the death of time Pope; Epistola
defensoria, Venice, 1513; Decisiones octo quæstionum, written
after 1339, first printed at Lyons, 1496, and answering the questions, whether
the highest spiritual and the highest secular power can be united in one
person, whether the secular power has its origin directly from God, whether the
Pope has the power of jurisdiction also in secular matters, etc.; Dialogus
in tres partes diatinctus, his chief work in this line, written probably in
1342-43, first printed in Paris, 1476, 2 vols. fol., but not complete; De
jurisdictione imperatoris in causis matrimonialibus. De electione Caroli,
etc. A collected critical edition of Occam's works does not exist (several of
them are still in manuscript); nor has there been written any satisfactory
monograph on his life and doctrines, though the latter exercised so decisive an
influence in the period of the Reformation, especially on Luther.
Wagenmann, "Occam, William" Philip Schaff,
ed., A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical,
Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd edn, Vol. 3. Toronto, New York &
London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894. pp.1679-1680.
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William
of Ockham, Expositio Aurea, new edn. Gregg Publishing, 1964. Hbk. ISBN:
0576994863. |
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 William of Ockham, 'A Letter
to the Friars Minor' and Other Writings, Arthur Stephen McGrade & John
Kilcullen, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pbk. ISBN:
0521358043. pp.433. |
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William
of Ockham, On the Power of Emperors and Popes, Annabel S. Brett, eds.
Thoemmes Press, 1998. Hbk. ISBN: 1855065525. pp.200. |
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Ockham's
Theory of Terms: Part I of the Summa Logicae. M.J. Loux, translator. St.
Augustine's Press, 1997. Hbk. ISBN: 1890318507. pp.220. |
|
 Ockham's Theory of
Propositions: Part II of the Summa Logicae. A.J. Fredoso & H.
Schuurman, translators. St. Augustine's Press, 1997. Hbk. ISBN: 1890318515.
pp.220. |
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William
of Ockham, Philosophical Writings, revised. Hackett Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1990. ISBN: 0872200787. pp.167. |
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William
of Ockham, Predestination, God's Foreknowledge and Future Contingents,
2nd edn., M. McCord Adams & N. Kretzmann, translators. Hackett Publishing
Co, Inc., 1996. Hbk. ISBN: 091514414X. pp.136. |
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William
of Ockham, Quodlibetal Questions, Vols I & II, Alfred J. Freddoso
& Francis E. Kelley, translator. Yale University Press, 1991. Hbk. ISBN:
0300048327. pp.738. |
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 William of Ockham, A Short
Discourse on Tyrannical Government, Arthur Stephen McGrade, ed., John
Kilcullen, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Hbk. ISBN:
0521352428. pp.251. |
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William
of Ockham, A Translation of William of Ockham's "Work of Ninety Days",
Vol. 1, John Kilcullen & John Scott, translators. Edwin Mellen Press, 2001.
Hbk. ISBN: 0773475281. pp.504. |
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William
of Ockham, A Translation of William of Ockham's "Work of Ninety Days",
Vol. 2, John Kilcullen & John Scott, translators. Edwin Mellen Press, 2001.
Hbk. ISBN: 0773475303. pp.480. |
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Marilyn
McCord Adams, William Ockham, 2 Vols. Publications in Medieval Studies,
26. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989. Pbk. ISBN:
0268019452. pp.1216. |
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Philotheus Boehner, Collected Articles on Ockham. Franciscan
Institute Publications. Philosophy Series, No. 12. St. Bonaventure, NY:
Franciscan Institute, 1958. pp. x + 482. |
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C.K. Brampton, "Scotus, Ockham and the Theory of Intuitive
Cognition," Antonianum 40 (1965): 449-466. |
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David Burr, "Ockhma, Scotus, and the Censure at Avignon," Church
History 37.2 (1968): 144-159. |
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Richard Cross, "Nominalism and the Christology of William of Ockham," Recherches De Theologie Ancienne Et Medievale 58 (1991):
126-156. |
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A. Edidin & C. Normore, "Ockham on Prophecy," International
Journal for Philosophy of Religion 13.3 (1982): 179-189. |
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A.
Goddu, The Physics of William of Ockham. Leiden: E J Brill Academic
Publishers, 1984. Pbk. ISBN: 9004069127. |
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Vesa Hirvonen, "William Ockham on Human Being," Studia
Theologica 53.1 (1999): 40-49. |
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Anne
Hudson & M. Wilks, eds., Studies in Church History Subsidia 5: From Ockham to Wyclif. Oxford, Blackwell, 1987. Hbk. ISBN: 0631150552.
pp.353-9. |
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John Kilcullen, "Ockham and Infallibility," Journal of Religious
History 16.4 (1991): 387-410. |
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Gordon Leff, "Knowledge and its Relation to the Status of Theology
According to Ockham," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 20.1 (1969):
7-17. |
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Gordon
Leff, William of Ockham. The Metamorphosis of Scholastic Discourse.
Manchester: Manchester Universoty Press, 1975. Hbk. ISBN:
0719005779. |
|
 A.S. McGrade, The Political Thought of
William of Ockham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pbk. ISBN:
0521522242. pp.283. |
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E.A.
Moody, The Logic of William of Ockham. Russell & Russell Publishing,
1935. ISBN: 0846206668. |
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 Patrick Nold, Pope John XXII and His Franciscan
Cardinal: Bertrand De La Tour and the Apostolic Poverty Controversy. Oxford
Historical Monographs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003. Hbk. ISBN: 0199268754.
pp.280. |
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Mary Ann Pernoud, "The Theory of the Potentia Dei According to
Aquinas, Scotus and Ockham," Antonianum 47.1 (1972): 69-75. |
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Gian Luca Potesta, "Rm 13,1 in Ockham," Christianesimo Nella
Storia 7.3 (1986): 465-492. |
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John
Julian Ryan, Nature, Structure and Function of the Church in William of
Ockham. Scholars Press, US, 1982. Hbk. ISBN: 0891302301. |
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Takashi Shogimen, "From Disobedience to Toleration: William of Ockham
and the Medieval Discourse on Fraternal Correction," Journal of
Ecclesiastical History 52.4 (2001): 599-622. |
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 Paul V. Spade, Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals.. Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1994. pp.258. [Read on Perlego using subscription or free trial] |
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![Ernest Crewdson Thomas [1876-1950], History of the Schoolmen](images/books3/history-of-the-schoolmen_thomas-tb.jpg) Ernest Crewdson Thomas [1876-1950], History of the Schoolmen. London: Williams & Norgate Ltd., 1941. Hbk. pp.677.  pdf [This material is in the Public Domain] |
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Brian
Tierney, Ockham, the Conciliar Theory, and the Canonists. Facet Books.
Historical Series, 19 (Medieval). Fortress Press, 1971. Pbk. ISBN:
0800630645. |
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Damascene
Webering, Theory of Demonstration According to William of Ockham. The
Franciscan Institute. Pbk. ISBN: 1576590992. |
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John R. White, "Ockham and Nominalism: Toward a New Paradigm," Catholic Social Science Review 6 (2001): 271-287. |
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 Rega Wood & William De Connexione
Virtutum, Ockham on the Virtues. History of Philosophy Series. Purdue
University Press, 1997. Pbk. ISBN: 1557530971. pp.272. |
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Earl R. Woods, "Ockham on Nature and God," Thomist 37.1
(1973): 69-87. |
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