Difference between revisions of "William of Ockham"
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'''William of Ockham''' (c. 1287 - c. 1347) was a late Medieval philosopher and Franciscan friar originally from England. He studied at London and Oxford. <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ockham/</ref> | '''William of Ockham''' (c. 1287 - c. 1347) was a late Medieval philosopher and Franciscan friar originally from England. He studied at London and Oxford. <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ockham/</ref> | ||
===Philosophical thought=== | ===Philosophical thought=== | ||
Revision as of 23:09, May 18, 2015
William of Ockham (c. 1287 - c. 1347) was a late Medieval philosopher and Franciscan friar originally from England. He studied at London and Oxford. [1]
Philosophical thought
He is perhaps best known for Occam's Razor , a philosophical concept which states that the most simple explanation is always more likely to be the true explanation unless evidence demands a more complicated one. This is vital in the philosophy of science. Ockham is also known for arguing that natural theology (that is, arguing for God's existence using logic) is completely futile as a subject. Nevertheless, Ockham's entire philosophical system is essentially based on God as a necessary, all-powerful and all-knowing being by whom all possibilities have their grounding. Ockham is also well-known for his espousal of a view called nominalism, the view that abstract platonic objects and/or essences (i.e. numbers, sets, laws of logic, colors, etc.) do not exist but are just made-up conceptions in the human mind.
When he died, he was most likely a victim of the first wave of Black Death in Europe.
See Also
References
<references>