William of Ockham: biography of this English philosopher and theologian.

Summary of the life of William of Ockham, one of the most influential English philosophers.

Philosophy during the Middle Ages gave rise to a number of authors of extraordinary importance in their approaches.

One of the most outstanding is undoubtedly William of Ockham, whose life and work we will know in detail throughout this article, so that we can get a general idea of the influence that this great intellectual had, both for his contemporaries and for the authors to come. Let us look at a biography of William of Ockham in abridged format.

Brief biography of William of Ockham

William of Ockham was born around 1985 (there are discrepancies as to the exact date) in the English village of Ockhamfor which he receives his nickname. It is a small town in the southeast of England. He received his education at London House in Greyfriars, a convent belonging to the Franciscan order.

Subsequently, attended Oxford University to train as a theologian.. He studied at this institution between 1309 and 1321. At that time, upon completing the training in a particular area of study, it was customary to obtain the title of master regent, by which one could teach in that discipline, being considered an expert in the subject.

However, William of Ockham did not achieve such accreditation. On the contrary, he was granted that of venerable beginner, a lower rank, which gave him the option of becoming a teacher, but maintaining the status of student. In any case, he would later become a professor at the University of Paris.

Precisely during his time as a teacher in that institution, he was able to train other students who would become great thinkers, like him, as was the case of Jean Buridan, a scholastic philosopher who in the future would maintain discrepancies with respect to the approaches of the works of William of Ockham.

Controversies with the Church

Throughout the Middle Ages, a series of Christian theological works were created that the Church assumed as fundamental. One of these was the Sentences of Peter Lombard, from the year 1150. It was common for theologians and thinkers to reflect on works such as this. William of Ockham did the same, but his ideas were not liked by other authors, nor by the authorities of the Church.

So much so that the comments he wrote on Lombard's Sentences led to the bishops meeting in a synod that led to the convening of a meeting with William of Ockham in the French city of Avignon in 1324. After studying the case in depth, this sort of tribunal concluded that his ideas were far removed from the postulates of the Church.. Some even qualified him as a heretic.

The consequence of the sentence of this papal court was a four-year imprisonment in this city, while the Church deepened the investigation on his writings. This fact has generated discrepancies in some historians, because according to other sources, William of Ockham went to Avignon to teach philosophy in a Franciscan center.

Regarding this version, some authors affirm that the intention of this action was to counteract the influence of the academics who taught the works of Thomas Aquinas. It was precisely some of these followers who had made the accusation of heresy against William.

This second version of the facts is based on the fact that, according to other sources, the papal court summoned William of Ockham, not in the year 1324 but in 1327, and that there was no sentence in this regard, much less a house arrest of several years.

Another fact that generated great friction between this author and the leaders of the Church was a work he did following a request from Michael of Cesena, the head of the Franciscans of the Church.the leader of the Franciscans. He asked William of Ockham to study the question of apostolic poverty, an issue that had generated a great debate between the Franciscans themselves and the pope, as well as other orders such as the Dominicans.

The Franciscans claimed that, just as the apostles and Jesus himself preached in poverty, the representatives of the Church should do the same. This is what this order called the Rule of St. Francis, which was not approved by other ordinations or by the pope himself, which generated the conflict between the two sides.

The conclusions of William in this regard were not only in support of his own order, but also added that Pope John XXII was falling into heresy, which meant the total rupture between the two figures.

Flight from Avignon and stay in Pisa

The frictions that William of Ockham had had with the Church caused that, in 1328, he decided to leave the French city of Avignon for good, going to the region of Pisa, in Italy, in the company of some Franciscans, among whom was Michael of Cesena.He went to the region of Pisa, in Italy, in the company of some Franciscans, among whom was Michael of Cesena himself.

In spite of the delicate situation in which they found themselves, having as their enemy none other than the Pope of Rome and the highest echelons of the Church, these friars found protection in Louis IV of Bavaria. found protection in Louis IV of Bavaria, king of Italy and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.. This allowed William of Ockham to live in peace, without suffering reprisals, during his last period.

During these years, he spent his time creating new works on theology, philosophy, but also politics and law. After the death of his companion and friend, Michael of Cesena, he assumed the leadership of his group of Franciscans, who had become dissidents after the conflict with Pope John XXII.

William of Ockham was to spend his last years in a monastery of his congregation of his congregation located in the German city of Munich. It is believed that his death was due to the Black Death disease. There are divergences as to the date of his death, as some sources place it in the year 1347 and others in 1349.

Although his flight from Avignon had among other consequences his excommunication, the Church reinstated him a decade after his death.Pope John XXII had already died and Innocent VI was in office (there had been several popes in between).

Ockham's razor

William of Ockham is considered to be a one of the most influential thinkers of the entire medieval period, and the leading exponent of nominalism, a philosophical movement dating from this period.a philosophical movement dating from this period. The basis of nominalism is that there are no universal elements, but that everything is particular. For this reason, it is sometimes also known as particularism.

Regarding the work of William of Ockham, probably the most important concept he developed and for which he is universally known is that of Ockham's razor. This construct is also sometimes called the principle of parsimony or the principle of economy.

Ockham's razor refers to the fact that, when one tries to find out the why of some question, whatever it may be, and different alternatives that are on equal footing are evaluated, the simplest of them will be more likely to be the correct one. In other words, the simplest explanation is also the most likely.

Obviously, this approach is not irrefutable, nor does it follow the so-called scientific method. However, the simplicity and the sense of this proposed by William of Ockham made it quickly become a general rule when studying different questions and trying to find the explanation to each of them.

One of the problems that arise when studying Ockham's razor is that it is not always easy to discern between the different levels of simplicity among the alternatives that are considered, and therefore it may not be so easy to choose the option that represents less complexity, since no differences are found with other candidate theories.

Likewise, William of Ockham makes it clear that when using Ockham's razor system and trying to choose the simplest alternative, the person must know that it is the one most likely to be correct, but that does not mean that it is for sure. Therefore, it will be a probabilistic question, but not an exhaustive one..

The principle of Ockham's razor has reached our days and is frequently used in a number of areas, knowing that it will not always provide the correct answer, but it will in a high percentage of cases.