William of Ockham
Medieval parsimony advocate
William of Ockham was a fourteenth-century English Franciscan friar and philosopher, best known for the principle called Ockham's razor: the simplest explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is usually correct.
His skepticism toward elaborate metaphysical systems and his arguments for separating faith from reason influenced later empiricism and political thought about church-state relations.
- Ockham's razorSimplest explanation preferred
- razorBlade for removing hair
- nominalismUniversals exist as labels only
- medievalOf the Middle Ages
- philosopherStudent of fundamental questions
friar · Franciscan · apostolic poverty · logic · logical analysis · simplicity · parsimony · scholasticism · entities · Oxford · theology · universals · particulars · medieval philosophy · excommunication · England · fourteenth century · metaphysics
- British ThinkersBertrand Russell, John Locke, David Hume, Thomas Hobbes, Francis Bacon
- Medieval FiguresGenghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Marco Polo, Dante, Chaucer
- ontologyontology, being, existence, becoming, universals
- FranciscansSaint Francis, friars, St. Francis, friar, Francis of Assisi
- LogiciansAristotle, Bertrand Russell, Kurt Godel, Leibniz, Lewis Carroll
- medieval metaphysicssubstance, essence, being, existence, universals
William of OckhamPlato
Greek philosopher, academy founder
Duns Scotus · pluralism · Thomas Aquinas · Augustine of Hippo · maximalist
William of Ockhampapal supremacy
Pope's highest ecclesiastical authority