William of Ockham, the Franciscan schoolman, nominalist, and "doctor invincibilis," is a revolutionary figure during his time. He is, along with Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus, among the three most prominent figures in the history of philosophy during the High Middle Ages. Today, he is best known for his espousal of metaphysical nominalism; the methodological principle known as "Ockham's Razor-. But Ockham held important, often influential views not just in metaphysics but in all major areas of medieval philosophy: logic, natural philosophy, theory of knowledge, ethics, and political philosophy, as well as in theology. His logical criticisms shook the foundations of Scholasticism, and the dialects of the following centuries revolved around the problems, which he had raised.
Who is William of Ockham?.
Ockham was born, probably in late 1287 or early 1288, in the village of Ockham in Surrey, a little to the southwest of London. He probably learned basic Latin at a village school in Ockham or nearby, but this is not certain. At an early age, somewhere between seven and thirteen, Ockham was "given- to the Franciscan (also called the "Grey Friars-). .
Around 1310, when he was about 23, Ockham began his theological training at Oxford studying theology by at least the year 1318-19, and probably the previous year as well, when (in 1317) he began a required two-year cycle of lectures commenting on Peter Lombard's Sentences, the standard theological textbook of the day. Then, probably in 1321, Ockham returned to London Greyfriars, where he remained. Although he had taken the initial steps in the theology program at Oxford (hence his occasional nickname, the Venerabilis Inceptor, "Venerable Beginner-), Ockham did not complete the program there, and never became a fully qualified "master- of theology at Oxford. .
In May 1324, William of Ockham was charged of teaching heresy and was called from Oxford to Avignon to plead his cause.
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