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Ockham: Philosophical Writings
William of Ockham
A compact, teachable selection from one of the sharpest minds of the Middle Ages, presented in facing Latin and English by the Franciscan scholar Philotheus Boehner. William of Ockham — the fourteenth-century logician remembered for "Ockham's razor," the principle that entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity — was a revolutionary thinker who argued that only individual things exist and that universals are names, not realities. This anthology draws balanced samples from his logic, theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and ethics, with Boehner's introduction and notes making a notoriously technical author approachable. First published in 1957, it long served as the standard English entry point to Ockham and is still reprinted by Hackett. Students of medieval thought, of the roots of empiricism and nominalism, or simply of that famous razor will find here the primary texts behind the reputation.
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The author
William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347) was an English Franciscan friar, logician, and theologian, one of the most influential philosophers of the later Middle Ages. His nominalism — the view that only individuals exist and universals are mere names — and his principle of parsimony ("Ockham's razor") helped clear the ground for later empiricism. He clashed with the papacy over apostolic poverty and spent his last years under its censure.
The editor
Philotheus Boehner (1901–1955) was a Franciscan medievalist and leading Ockham scholar whose edition and translation shaped English-language study of the philosopher; the volume was later revised for Hackett with Stephen F. Brown.
The book
Ockham: Philosophical Writings gathers representative selections across logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics in parallel Latin and English, with scholarly apparatus.
How to read it
It remains an excellent, reliable gateway, though the translations predate the modern critical Latin edition of Ockham (hence the later revisions' appendices). Read Boehner's introduction first; the selections are dense but rewarding.
For more context
Pair with a survey of medieval philosophy to situate Ockham against Aquinas and Duns Scotus.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- William of Ockham
- Publisher
- Thomas Nelson
- Place of publication
- Edinburgh
- Year
- 1957
- Edition
- Edited and translated by Philotheus Boehner
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Spirituality & Philosophy
- Location
- Colorado