![]() ![]() It was through his works that he offered the principle later termed ‘Occam’s Razor’, arguing for explanations that require the least number of hypotheses. ontology Occam’s razor, also spelled Ockham’s razor, also called law of economy or law of parsimony, principle stated by the Scholastic philosopher William of Ockham (12851347/49) that pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, plurality should not be posited without necessity. In logic, he penned down the ‘Sum of Logic’, a work in which he proposed the use of new concepts in logic as well as a new logical system. He actively advocated a nominalist philosophy, putting the individual at the center of all experience and regarding all universals as mere mental concepts. Ockham firmly believed that faith and private revelation were crucial for an individual to be able to reach the truth. William died in 1347 and his ex-communication was lifted by Pope Innocent VI in 1359. (1) The authority of many experts teaches what great fruits the science of language that we call logic brings forth for the followers of truth, while. The dispute with the Papacy also led him to put more trust in the temporal monarchs, arguing in his subsequent treatises that the emperor should have full control over the church and the state in the Holy Roman Empire.įollowing his flight from Avignon, William had been excommunicated. While living in exile from the Papacy, William defended his views in writing and criticised the views of John XXII as heretical. As a result, William fled the proceedings of the papal court in Avignon in 1328 and sought refuge in the court of Louis IV of Bavaria, Holy Roman Emperor at the time. Since Franciscans, including William, avidly believed in apostolic poverty while Pope John XXII at the time disapproved of it, the issue put the leading Franciscans at odds with the Papacy. He then had to appear before a papal court to defend the commentary.Ī more troublesome conflict with Church authorities came in 1327 when William was once again summoned to a papal court and was embroiled in a debate about apostolic poverty. However, his commentary didn’t find approval with the Church authorities and was deemed unorthodox. Full PDF Package Download Full PDF Package. ![]() Disputes with the Church and PapacyĪround 1324, William penned down a commentary on the ‘Sentences’ of Peter Lombard. Untimely Review to appear in Topoi: an international review of philosophy William of Ockham, The Sum of Logic reviewed by Stephen Read. Bonaventure, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, 1974), pp. This means that although he became a teacher at the university, his title continued to be that of a student. Summa logicae,III.3.46 From Guillelmi de Ockham, Summa logicae,Philotheus Boehner, Gedeon Gl and Stephanus Brown, ed., (Guillelmi de Ockham Opera philosophica et the- ologica, OPh I St. While scientists think they can do without philosophy, occasionally prin- ciples of logic or philosophy do enter scientific discourse explicitly. ![]() He further studied theology at the University of Oxford where he continued to study until 1321.Īlthough he completed all prerequisites of a master’s degree at the university, he was given the title of an Inceptor rather than a Regent Master. It was as a part of the Order that he was able to have access to a vast body of literature, both philosophical and theological. The sec- ond path is explored here as a modest attempt to show that once we abandon the bias against the history of logic as irrelevant, we can ac- tually get access to firm logical solutions inaccessible from a classical perspective, while still practicing logic proper.William of Ockham was born in 1285 and he became a part of the Franciscan order of friars are a very young age. One can modify classical logic and adapt the formal apparatus to account for the aforementioned problems (Graham Priest’s logic for intentional- ity serves as an example of such an approach in this work) or one can make an even more radical shift and seek for inspiration in a different logical tradition like the terminist logic developed in the Late Middle Ages by figures like William of Ockham or John Buridan. Since intentionality plays an important role in our everyday reasoning, a proper formal account of it is highly desirable, yet it requires a departure from classical logic. This MSc thesis addresses three challenges posed by intentionality - the ability of our mental states and language to be about something - to a logician: an apparent reference to non-existent objects, intentional indeterminacy and the failure of substitutivity of coextensive terms in an intentional context. ![]()
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