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. Shapiro, Motion, Time and Place According to William of Ockham (1957).William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey in 1287. Boehner, Collected Articles on Ockham (1956) and (ed.), Ockham: Philosophical Writings (1957) H. Carre, Realists and Nominalists (1946) P. Moody, The Logic of William of Ockham (1935) M.H. He cannot be apprehended by reason, as the Thomists taught, or by illumination, as the Augustinians believed, but only by faith.Į.A. God to Ockham, however, was above all knowledge. Called the via moderna as opposed to the via antiqua of Aquinas, Ockham's Nominalism was of great significance for science, since it suggested that natural phenomena could be investigated rationally. Involved in his explanation of reality is his view that “What can be done with fewer assumptions is done in vain with more” (“Ockham's Razor”). Oakham rejected this teaching on the basis of a radical empiricism in which the base of knowledge is direct experience of individual things (Nominalism*). All of these thirteenth- century systems, however, depended on the doctrine of Realism. Franciscan scholars from Bonaventure to Duns Scotus tried to argue for the Christian faith by destroying Aristotle's philosophy. Its purpose was to keep the philosophic system of Aristotelianism intact. Ockham criticized the accommodation of the philosophical system of Aristotle with Christian doctrine that had been fashioned by the thirteenth-century Schoolmen such as Thomas Aquinas.* This method had tried to achieve an accord between faith and reason by reinterpretation of the philosophical assumptions of Aristotle. His most important philosophical work is Summa Logicae, which he completed before he left Avignon. These include lectures on Peter Lombard's* Sentences, an explanation of Aristotle's* Physics, commentaries and treatises on logic and natural science. The nonpolitical works that contain his contributions to philosophy and theology were written while he was at Avignon and Oxford (1317-28). While working for Louis (1333-47) he wrote works about the relation of church and state such as Dialogus Inter Magistrum et Discipulum, Octo Quaestiones Super Potestate ac Dignitate Papali, and Tractatus de Imperatorum et Pontificum Potestate.
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His writings fall into two groups associated with the two phases of his life. After Louis's death in 1347 William made an effort to be reconciled with his order and the church, but the outcome of this attempt is not known.
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Excommunicated, William is supposed to have said to the emperor: “You defend me with your sword and I will defend you with my pen.” From 1328 until his death he produced powerful defenses of the imperial theory against those who favored the pope.
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In 1328 he left the city and went to the court of the emperor Louis of Bavaria. A dispute between Pope John XXII* and the Spiritual Franciscans was then at its height, and William identified himself with the Spirituals in opposition to John. His ideas led to a summons to Avignon (1324) to answer charges of heresy. Born in Surrey, England, he entered the Franciscan Order about 1310 and studied at Oxford between 13. Medieval Scholastic theologian and philosopher.