major statement on logic; seven quodlibetals; and treatises on the Body of Christ, on the
eucharist, and on predestination. After his departure from Avignon in 1328, he wrote
works against the Avignon papacy, the chief ones being Opus nonaginta dierum, about
papal errors regarding poverty; Dialogus inter magistrum et discipulum (1333–47); eight
quaestiones on papal authority (1340); and a treatise on the respective powers of emperor
and pope (ca. 1347).
Ockham was principally a theologian, vigorously exploring the philosophical limits of
each epistemological, logical, or metaphysical issue, often to see more clearly the
theological application. He rejected the older Platonic Realism and the via antiqua of the
Aristotelians to pursue a via moderna, a path of demonstration and the near-autonomy of
faith. He insisted upon a method of economy of explanation, later termed “Ockham’s
razor.” With the nominalists, he contested the reality of universals and affirmed the
fundamental reality of particulars for the human mind. His own solution to the
relationship between universals and particulars is often called “conceptualist” instead of
“nominalist,” because he viewed concepts not merely as creatures of the mind but rather
as entities identical with the abstractive cognition by which the mind considers individual
objects in a certain way. With Duns Scotus, he asserted the utter transcendence and
unique necessity and freedom of God in contrast with the contingency of all else,
including so-called natural and moral laws. He argued the distinction between God’s
absolute power and that of his ordained power, manifest in his decrees, by which God
limits himself to operate within ordinations he established. Ockham also contributed to
medieval and early-modern political theory and ecclesiology. He influenced conciliarism,
and his theological legacy reached to Pierre d’Ailly, Gabriel Biel, and Martin Luther. He
attacked the wealth of the church, challenged the notions of papal infallibility and
plenitude of power, upheld the right of imperial election apart from papal interference,
and conceded to the emperor the responsibility to depose a heretical pope. He maintained
that the papacy was not established by Christ, that the general council was superior to the
papacy, but that the pope possessed an ordinary executive authority unless he were
heretical.
H.Lawrence Bond
[See also: AVIGNON PAPACY; D’AILLY, PIERRE; DUNS SCOTUS, JOHN;
PHILOSOPHY; SCHOLASTICISM; THEOLOGY; UNIVERSITIES]
Ockham, William of. Opera philosophica, ed. Philotheus Boehner et al. 3 vols. St. Bonaventure:
Editiones Instituti Franciscani Universitatis S.Bonaventurae, 1974–85.
——. Opera theologica, ed. Gedeon Gál et al. 10 vols. St. Bonaventure: Editiones Instituti
Franciscani Universitatis S. Bonaventurae, 1967–86.
——. Opera politica, ed. Jeffrey G.Sikes et al. 3 vols. Manchester: University of Manchester Press,
1940-.
——. William of Ockham. Philosophical Writings: A Selection, ed. and trans. Philotheus Boehner.
rev. ed. Stephen F. Brown. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1990.
Adams, Marilyn McCord. William Ockham. 2 vols. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,
1987.
Baudry, León. Guillaume d’Occam: sa vie, ses œuvres, ses idées sociales et politiques. Paris: Vrin,
1949, Vol. 1: L’homme et les œuvres.
Boehner, Philotheus. Collected Articles on Ockham, ed. Eligii M.Buytaert. St. Bonaventure:
Franciscan Institute, 1958.
McGrade, Arthur Stephen. The Political Thought of William of Ockham: Personal and Institutional
Principles. London: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
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