Yet this doesn't quite tell the whole story. Put simply, we publish popular science and philosophy. We were set up to publish and develop authors with a talent for this very simple principle people of all academic backgrounds and interests, but only those with an ability to either discover or explain the most interesting facets of science and philosophy in a simple and engaging manner. As a wider logical statement it means that - all else being equal - an overly complex idea should not be favoured over an effortlessly simple one. In medicine this might mean recognising that a patient presenting with the symptoms of a common cold are probably not suffering from a rare genetic disorder. Buridan, Nicolaus of Autrecourt, and Hobbes.We are named after William of Ockham, an influential 14th Century philosopher, who is famed for theorising Ockham's razor - an idea that perfectly explains what we are about.Īll things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one. Ockham exerted a considerable influence on the subsequent development of logic and philosophy, especially on J. Like John Duns Scotus, he assigned will priority over reason. Religious dogmas were defined by him as suprarational prescriptions relating not to reason but to faith and will. He urged that philosophy and theology be divided into separate branches of study. Ockham insisted that concepts that cannot be reduced to intuitive knowledge and that cannot be verified experientially should be eliminated from science: “entities are not to be multiplied without necessity.” This principle, which came to be known as “Ockham’s razor,” played an important role in the struggle against medieval realism and the theory of “hidden qualities.” Believing that there can be no necessary link between individual substances, Ockham restricted the use of the concept of causation to empirical statements. He formulated the principle of the duality of conjunction and disjunction, and he asserted that primary cognition is intuitive and includes both external perception and introspection. In his theory of consequence he virtually distinguished between material and formal implication. In particular, he originated the idea that the meaning of a term is determined entirely by its function in an expression. Ockham was one of the greatest logicians of the Middle Ages. “Real” sciences (those dealing with real objects) correspond to the terms of primary intention, and “rational” sciences (logic and grammar, for example) to the terms of secondary intention. He asserted that only individual substances and their absolute qualities have real existence, and he proposed that, outside of thought, the universals are only names and terms signifying classes of names-terms of primary and secondary intention. Ockham was the chief representative of nominalism in the 14th century. He defended the principle of “evangelical poverty.” Many of his ideas anticipated the Reformation. According to legend, he told the emperor: “Defend me by the sword, and I will defend you by the pen.” In his political tracts, Ockham opposed the pope’s claims to secular power and the absolutism of ecclesiastical and secular authorities. From 1328, Ockham lived in Munich at the court of the pope’s adversary, Emperor Louis of Bavaria. He actively supported the head of the Franciscan Order, Michael of Cesena, in his dispute with the pope. In 1323 he was summoned to Avignon by Pope John XXII to respond to charges of heresy. Representative of late Scholasticism.Ī Franciscan monk, Ockham studied and taught at Oxford. English philosopher, logician, and religious and political writer. Born circa 1285 in Ockham, Surrey died 1349 in Munich.
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