William Ockham

Marilyn Adams

Description

William Ockham is probably the most notorious and most widely misunderstood philosopher of the later Middle Ages. Accused by John Lutterell, the former chancellor of Oxford University, of teaching heretical doctrines, Ockham was summoned to Avignon by Pope John XXII and eventually lived under the protection of Louis of Bavaria. Yet, with Aquinas and Scotus, he remains among the three greatest philosophers of the period.

This landmark book, split into two volumes, offers a clear and concise account of Ockham's philosophical positions (his ontology, logic, epistemology, and natural philosophy), along with the arguments for them. It then shows how Ockham's theological disagreements with his most eminent predecessors are a logical consequence of underlying philosophical differences. According to Marilyn McCord Adams, Ockham emerges as a Franciscan Aristotelian, much more philosophically and religiously conservative than commonly supposed. Adams challenges the notions that Ockham's nominalism and ontological reductions lead to subjectivism in metaphysics, his epistemology to skepticism, his theory of causality to Humean constant conjunction or to occasionalism. Likewise, Adams rejects the notion that Ockham's philosophical doctrines lead to heretical views in theology, or that his insistence on divine freedom leads to arbitrariness and caprice in ethics. Although her primary focus is on Ockham, McAdams compares and contrasts his positions with those of Aquinas, Scotus, Henry of Ghent, among others. William Ockham constitutes an excellent initiation for philosophers into the problems and theoretical framework of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Philosophie de la religion
• Philosophie médiévale, scolastique
• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Theology
• Surveys
• Medieval
• Religious
• HISTORY
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Colegio Mayor Universitario Santo Tomás de Aquino
• Edad Media
• Thomas Aquinas
• Scotus
• Henry of Ghent
• General officer
• Middle Ages
• General
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268074869
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 19 Mo

Extrait

WILLIAM OCKHAM
I PUBLICATIONS IN MEDIEVAL STUDIES
THE MEDIEVAL INSTITUTE
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
EDITED BY
RALPH MclNERNY
A Series Foundd by Philip S. Mo C.S. C. t, J N. G C.S. C. t,
and A. L. G
XXVI /1
MARILYN McCORD ADAMS
WILLIAM OCKHAM
VOLUME I
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
NOTRE DAME, INDIANA 1987 Copyright © 1987 by
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
All Rights Reserved
paperback edition 1989
ISBN 0-268-01945-2 (set)
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Bob
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adams, Marilyn McCord.
William Ockham.
(Publications in medieval studies; 26)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. William, of Ockham, ca. 1285-ca. 1349.
I. Title. II. Series.
B765.034A62 1987 189’.4 86-40337
ISBN 0-268-01940-1 (set)
ISBN 978-0-268-07486-9 (e-book)277
Contents
Pefce vii to the 1989 Printin ix g
Acknowledgements x
A Note on Ockham's Life and Works x
Abreations x
Part One: Ontology
Chapter 1: The Problem of Universals 3
Ch2: Universals Are Not Things Other Than
Names 13
Chapter 3: and Concepts
Chapter 4: Universals, Conventionalism, and Similarity 109
Chapter 5: Ockham's Ontological Program 143
Chapter 6: Quantity 169
Chapter 7: Relations 215
Chapter 8: Quality
Chapter 9: Evaluation of Ockham's Ontological
Program 2 87
Part Two: Logic
Chapter 10: The Properties of Terms 317
Chapter 11 : The Logic of Propositions 383
Chapter 12 : Arguments 437
Part Three: Theory of Knowledge
Chapter 13 : Conceptual Empiricism and Direct Realism 495
Chapter 14 : Certainty and Scepticism in Ockham's
Epistemology
v
551
71 853
697
Part Four: Natural Philosophy
Chapter 15 : The Metaphysical Structure of Composite
Substances 633
Chapter 16: Matter, Quantity, and Individuation 671
Chapter 17: Intensifcation and Reduction of Forms
Chapter 18: Efcient Causality
Chapter 19: Motion: Its Ontological Status and Its
Causes 799
Chapter 20: On Time
Part Five: Theology
Chapter 21: Divine Simplicity, Divine Attributes, and
the Meaning of Divine Names 903
Chapter 22: Faith and Reason 96 1
Chapter 23: Is God a Knower? 101 1
Chapter 24: Divine Ideas and God's Knowledge of
Creatures 1033
Chapter 25: Divine Ideas, Divine Power, and the
Ground of Possibility 1065
Chapter 26: Can God Know More Than He Knows?
A Matter of Types and Tokens 1085
Chapter 27: Divine Omniscience, Human Freedom,
and Future Contingency 111 5
Chapter 28: Divine Omnipotence Analyzed 11 51
Chapter 29: Omnipotence and the Charge
of Theologism 12 33
Chapter 30: Grace, Merit, and the Freedom of God 12 57
Chapter 31: Predestination, Reprobation, and
Freedom-Human and Divine 12 99
Bibliography 1349
Index of Names 1371 of Subject 1379
vi
74 1 Preface
In the publication of a book of this size, miracles have been
multipli ed, but not without necessity: the frst miracle was the
writing; the second, fnding a publisher willing and able to
fnance it; the third, preparing the bulky piece fr printing; the
furth , the actual production! Since I fnished the book in 1983,
various other secondary causes have made substantial contribu­
tions to this project. I am gratefl to my fiend (and fvorite
Thomist), Ralph Mcinerny, frmer director of the Medieval In­
stitute, at University of Notre Dame, fr working out ar­
rangements fr co-publica tion with Notre Dame University
Press . Rober t Anderson spent countless hours combing the
manuscript with remarkable care and patience, to fee the text
and the references fom many errors and inconsistencies. And
Kim Waterman diverted herself fom the pleasures of summer
to check entries in the bibliography. I am happy to thank them
both.
Marilyn McCord Adams
February 27, 1987
vii v
vs
sion partner is in the pat, unable f v v exchane,
Peface to the 1989 Pnng
Naturally I am delighted a t decision o t Ut o
Notre Dame Pess to issue a pa edition o Wl O
I take the occasion it provdes f a f m e methodo­
logical remarks.
My principal a in this book is to gi the n-cal w
of William Ockham an ac readin. My method is to meet his
witins in philosop and t a he i t to be
met: philosopher-to-sopher, a to gi h i and a­
ments an analis as philosophcall fne-grained a t ts t ­
sels. Ockham was a great thinker; his w d it . W I
began this stud, the had yet to get it!
History of philosop comes in man . My ap in
this book treats history of philosoph frst of all as a w of doing
ph ilosoph, wich taes a colleaes and dissn p the
great fres of t past. M inttn of t philosophical
enterrise p laces the understanding of philosc al prl
f on t and center, a sees the conceptual maping o cn
solutions, the wein of coma costs and bents a means
to tat end . I w make prs on this prect t philo­
sop hical discussion wth others of dfn nt s , hist
of ph ilosop h recogze s the ae of seng interlo in
the pat and not merel the present, in our ef to detail sch
con ceptual mas.
Te historian of philos l a fr-minded discussion p ­
ner, must listen hard to what the other philo is san, and
tr to enter into his/her point of ve, to ap ate the ss
and weaknesses fom the inside, to identi the intuition and
assess the argments on which it is b, a d to plce it among
the rane of solutions to various philocal p. Tese
tasks are made the more comcated by the f that the discus­
accessible onl t the witten p . Mo, past f
philosophized in diferent contexs, philocal, sociall, and
cultl. Reconstrction of the latter t as flls primaril
ix x PREFACE TO TIE 1989 PRINTING
wthin the provnce of the historian, but the frst belongs squarely
to the feld of philosophy. History of philosophy requires attention
to philosophical debates among past philosophers, because only
these can exose ther conception of philosophical problems and
allow us to see how and ponder why they were the sae as or
diferent fom contempora approaches.
Accordingly, I count my march through the fve principal felds
Ockham plowed philoso phical because I concentrate on philo­
sophical and theological problems - on analying, comparing, and
contrating Ockham's solutions to them with those of his eminent
predecessors (e.g., Tomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus)
ad contemoraies (e.g., Hen of Hac lay, Walter Burleig, Walter
Chatton, Peter Aureol). At the sae time, I count this work h­
torcal insofar as I have tried to reconstruct ther debates, to
discover ther concetions of the problems and difculties, and to
understand ther solutions to them. While my fcus is on Ockham,
I have tried to provde philosophers and intellectual historians
wth wder access to important ideas and controversies in the
philosophy and theolog of the late thirteenth and early fur­
teenth centuries. I hope, too, that my analysis lay the fundation
fr a reasessment of Ockham's overall place in the grand see
of the history of philosophy, and of his infuence on later thiners
and periods.
Finally, I wsh to thank those meticulous reewers, Professors
Marin Tweedale, of the Unversity of Alberta, and Paul Spade, of
Indiana University, who discovered a number of serious tyo­
graphical mstakes in the frst printing and notifed us in time to
correct them.
Marly McCord Adams
Feast of St. Augstine, 1989 Acknowledgements
One of the rewards of writing a book is the opportunity to
acknowledge many professional debts. I now claim that pre­
rogative.
"A student is not above his teacher .. .it is enough if he is like
his teacher.'' When I took Max Fisch' s Greek philosophy course
twenty years ago, I learned that philosophy, like religion, begins
in wonder and ends in awe. He also taught me that a historian of
philosophy must never depend exclusively on secondary
literature but must begin and end by listening to the primary
sources. His integrity, thoroughness, and openness to new in­
terpretations are a model and an inspiration. Norman Kretz­
mann introduced me to medieval philosophy and to William
Ockham in 19 63 . I cut my teeth as a medievalist working with
him on Ockham 's Predestination, God's Foreknowledge, and
Future Contingents, and learned far more than I noticed at the
time or could account for now. He has put many other oppor­
tunities fr professional development in my path, and I want to
thank him fr his continuous support and encouragement.
Nelson Pike showed me the importance of the medieval tradi­
tion fr theology and philosophy of religion. He also taught me
most of what I know about philosophical writing, and this book
owes whatever clarity and organization it has to him. My
greatest philosophical debt, is, of course, to Ockham himself.
When I meet him in the next life, I shall have to thank him fr
many lessons in metaphysics, epistemology, and theology, and
fr a decade of entertainment!
An historian of philosophy cannot work without texts. In this
regard, all Ockham scholars have been blessed with the work of
the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure, New York. Follow­
ing on the pioneering work of Philotheus Boehner, Fr. Gedeon
Gi l, OFM, has directed a team of editors in preparing critical
editions of Ockham's non-political (hilosophical and theo­
logical) works. The frst volume was published in 19 67, and by
the time this book appears all volumes should be printed or
xi xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
in press. We can expect the dissemination of these accurate
texts, and the translations they spawn, to produce an explosion
in Ockham studies at all levels . The Institute's hospitality to me
over the last dozen years has been a paradigm of Franciscan
generosity. Much of my work antedated or was concurrent with
their preparation of the critical editions. During my fequent
visits (since 19 7 1), the editors cheerflly made their resources
available to me-transcriptions of manuscripts, advance type­
scripts of the critical edition, new discoveries about Ockham's
sources and opponents, etc. Their assistance has improved the
present book in countless ways. The readine