![]() ![]() The Franciscans believed that Jesus and his apostles owned no property either individually or in common, and the Rule of Saint Francis commanded members of the order to follow this practice. Michael of Cesena had asked William to review arguments surrounding Apostolic poverty. A theological commission had been asked to review his Commentary on the Sentences, and it was during this that William of Ockham found himself involved in a different debate. The Franciscan Minister General, Michael of Cesena, had been summoned to Avignon, to answer charges of heresy. It is generally believed that these charges were levied by Oxford chancellor John Lutterell. Īn alternative understanding, recently proposed by George Knysh, suggests that he was initially appointed in Avignon as a professor of philosophy in the Franciscan school, and that his disciplinary difficulties did not begin until 1327. In 1324, his commentary was condemned as unorthodox by a synod of bishops, and he was ordered to Avignon, France, to defend himself before a papal court. However, William's commentary was not well received by his colleagues, or by the Church authorities. William of Ockham was among these scholarly commentators. ĭuring the Middle Ages, theologian Peter Lombard's Sentences (1150) had become a standard work of theology, and many ambitious theological scholars wrote commentaries on it. Because of this he acquired the honorific title Venerabilis Inceptor, or "Venerable Beginner" (an inceptor was a student formally admitted to the ranks of teachers by the university authorities). It is believed that he then studied theology at the University of Oxford from 1309 to 1321, but while he completed all the requirements for a master's degree in theology, he was never made a regent master. He received his elementary education in the London House of the Greyfriars. William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey, in 1287. William is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on the 10th of April. He is commonly known for Occam's razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, and also produced significant works on logic, physics and theology. 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. 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. William of Ockham, OFM ( / ˈ ɒ k əm/ also Occam, from Latin: Gulielmus Occamus c. He remains a seminal thinker: his denial of common essences, his emphasis on language in philosophical discourse, all anticipate significant developments in modern philosophy.Albert of Saxony, Jean Buridan, Adam de Wodeham, Gregory of Rimini, John Wycliffe, Gabriel Biel, Martin Luther, Henry VIII, John Calvin, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, Edmund Burke, Joseph De Maistre, Bertrand Russell Ockham takes his place among the great philosophers because, like them, he drew out all the implications of his insight. Indeed, an individual thing can no longer be said to have an essence it is an essence. A being is radically diverse and incommunicable, differing from every other being not only in number but in essence. The concept of being is univocal, standing for and signifying individuals. With Ockham the traditional conjugations of being come to signify the thing itself in its ineluctable unity. The original and focal point of Ockham's thought is the singular or individual thing (res singularis), as common nature (natura communis) is the central conception of Scotism, and the act of existing (esse) is of Thomism. Martin Heidegger once declared, 'Every thinker thinks but one single thought'. Over and again he sets each principle to powerful use, but allows no single one ot dominate, or to yield all its consequences. Yet it is precisely in confrontation with the views of his predecessors and contemporaries such as Scotus, Henry of Gent, Aquinas and Chatton that the particular force and character of his thought are revealed. These principles are not unique to Ockham but were common to all the scholastics. Many of his conclusions on matters as diverse as God's knowledge, will and power, on creation and the causality of natural things, and on human intuition and morality are reducible to them. The principles of the divine omnipotence and the rule of parsimony of thought known as 'Ockham's razor', and others like the principle of non-contradiction, help to shape the entire range of his thought. Every philosophy is sustained by a number of elemental principles that give it cohesion and unity.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |