William of Ockham: biography of this English philosopher and theologian

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

One of the most prominent is undoubtedly Guillermo de 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's see a biography of William of Ockham in summary format.

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Brief Biography of William of Ockham

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

Later, attended Oxford University to train as a theologian. He studied at this institution between 1309 and 1321. At that time, when completing training in a certain area of ​​study, he used to get the title of regent teacher, by which he could give classes in that discipline, considering himself an expert in the matter.

However, William of Ockham did not achieve such accreditation. On the contrary, he was granted the 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 stage 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, scholastic philosopher who in the future would maintain discrepancies with respect to the approaches of the works of Guillermo de 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 them was the Sentences of Peter Lombard, from the year 1150. It was common for theologians and thinkers to make reflections from works like this. Guillermo de Ockham did the same, but his ideas were not to the liking of other authors, nor of the authorities of the Church.

So much so, that the comments he wrote on the Lombard Judgments, supposed the meeting of the bishops 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 kind of court concluded that his ideas were far from the postulates of the Church. Some even called him a heretic.

The consequence of the sentence of this papal court was a seclusion for four years in this city, while the Church deepened its 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 classes in a Franciscan center.

On this version, some authors affirm that the intention of this action would be to counteract the influence of the academics who taught the works of Thomas Aquinas. Precisely some of those followers were those who had made the accusation of heresy on Guillermo.

This second version of events 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 that he carried out as a result of a request from Miguel de Cesena, agent of the Franciscans. He asked William of Ockham to study the question of apostolic poverty, a subject that he had generated a great debate between the Franciscans themselves and the Pope, in addition to other orders such as that of the Dominicans.

The Franciscans affirmed that, just as the apostles and Jesus himself preached in poverty, the representatives of the Church should do the same. It is what this order called the Rule of San Francisco, which was not approved by other ordinations or by the pope himself, which generated conflict between both parties.

Guillermo's conclusions in this regard were not only in support of his own order, but also He added that Pope John XXII was falling into heresy, which meant a total break between the two figures.

Flight from Avignon and stage in Pisa

The friction that William of Ockham had carried out with the Church caused that, in 1328, he decided to leave the French city of Avignon definitively, heading towards the Pisa region, in Italy, in the company of some Franciscans, among whom was Miguel de Cesena himself.

Despite the delicate situation in which they found themselves, having as an enemy nothing less than the Pope of Rome and the highest echelons of the Church, these friars found protection in Louis IV of Bavaria, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor. This allowed William of Ockham to live in peace, without suffering reprisals, during his last stage.

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, Miguel de Cesena, he assumed the leadership of his group of Franciscans, who had become dissidents after the conflict with Pope John XXII.

William of Ockham would spend his last years in a monastery of his congregation located in the German city of Munich. His death is believed to have occurred due to the Black Death disease. There are divergences as to the date of his death, since 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 reincorporated him a decade after his death., because Pope John XXII had already passed away and Innocent VI held the position (there having been several popes between them).

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Ockham's razor

William of Ockham is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the entire medieval period, and the greatest exponent of nominalism, a philosophical movement dating from this time. 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 that 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 it comes to finding out the why of any question, whatever it may be, and value different alternatives that are in equal conditions, the simplest of them will be more likely to be the correct. In other words, the simplest explanation is also the most likely.

Obviously, this approach is not irrefutable and neither does it imply a follow-up of the so-called scientific method. However, the simplicity and meaning of this proposed by Guillermo de Ockham made it quickly become become a general rule when studying different questions and trying to find the explanation for each one 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 between the alternatives that are shuffle, and therefore it may not be so easy to choose the option that represents less complexity, since no differences are found with one or more other theories candidates.

Likewise, Guillermo de Ockham makes it clear that when using Ockham's razor system and trying to choose the most simple, the person must know that this is the one most likely to be correct, but that does not mean that it is scientifically correct true. Therefore, it will be a probabilistic question, but not exhaustive.

The principle of Ockham's razor has survived to this day and is used frequently in a whole series of areas, knowing that it does not always have to provide the correct answer, but it does in a high percentage of cases.