Ockham

‘It is vain to do with more what can be done with less,’ preached English Franciscan William of Ockham (1287-1349), undoubtedly, one of the foremost medieval thinkers.

Although not as widely known as his predecessor, Franciscan Rodger Bacon, or the most eminent philosopher of medieval times, Thomas Aquinas, Ockham’s philosophy had an integral contribution to the later development of world considerations and science awakening. His principles are more renowned than himself, actually.

Occam’s (or Ockham’s) razor, i.e. Novacula occami, widely accepted in modern science, logic and life as well, represents a well-known principle for problem-solving, i.e. choosing the simplest solution. This heuristic principle, also known as Lex parsimonia, and dubbed Occam’s knife or razor, states that when there are several hypotheses, one should choose the one with the fewest suppositions. However, Ockham’s principle does not represent an inquisition for theories and hypotheses; it is more of a convenient generally accepted guide to thinking.

When some phenomenon in science is explained by a continuous introduction of novel suppositions to keep the theory alive, Occam’s razor actually demonstrates that something is wrong with the theory. If you catch a culprit red-handed with weapons and hot goods in real life, Occam’s razor serves you in not believing that the crime is committed by an advanced extra-terrestrial civilization collaborating with Freemasons and the Vatican, but to choose a simpler explanation.

Although his thought imbues each modern understanding of the world, William of Ockham was a thinker of his age, a much darker epoch in many ways, a period when it was difficult not to think simplistically but to think at all. Even distinguished Swedish historian, Michael Nordberg, whose seminal work ‘The Dynamic Middle Ages’ put an end to the idea of the ‘dark middle ages’, says that the 14th century was ‘the most catastrophic century in history.’

This is the century when the plague took over Europe, the climate got worse, and famine claimed  lives of millions of people. Superstition and fear barricaded cities inside their walls. The entire continent was completely cooped up. New horizons and oversea discovery expeditions had not happened yet. The crusades in the Middle East were foiled, the Byzantine Empire was collapsing, and the Ottoman conquest was underway. European ministates were at constant wars, a new schism was developing among the Christians, and terror of dogmas quashed every independent idea.

Calling upon Christ and the apostles’ poverty, the religious order of Saint Francis, whose member Ockham was, preached not just wealth rejection, but non-possession and all-around simplicity. The leaders of this order clashed with Avignon Pope John XXII. Already famous for his wisdom, Ockham transferred from Oxford to one of the rare centres of learning, the University of Paris, but due to his criticism of metaphysics in the then-theological studies, he was summoned to Avignon with other Franciscans to appear before the Pope, in 1324.

However, together with a group led by the minister general of the Franciscan Order, Michael of Cesena, he fled Avignon and took refuge in Munich, at the court of Louis IV (German: Ludwig) the Bavarian, a monarch at odds with the Pope. Charged with the escape, Ockham spent his life in a political struggle with the Papal regime, while Ludwig became his protector. Two decades later, in one of the frequent epidemics common to that era, Ockham died of the plague. The image shows his portrait on stained glass in a church in Surrey, England.

Over the course of his entire life, Ockham wrote letters and treatises, which lay the foundation for a new philosophical doctrine – nominalism, which was to transform philosophy and facilitate the rejection of the so-called universals and abstract concepts. As Nordberg asserted ‘Ockham brought anti-metaphysical, empirical and authority-free attitude, whose sole purpose is the advancement of natural sciences.’

In his opinion, Occamism, as a widespread teaching, represents a requirement for the far-reaching revolution of physics and astronomy. It was Ockham’s disciple John Buridan (1300-1360), who severely criticized Aristotelian physics and developed a theory of impetus, in the absence of which, it would be impossible to consider the movement in a manner later carried out by Galileo and Newton.

Conversely, Ockham’s logical principle much predated him, and it is an interesting fact that he did not define Occam’s razor verbatim as a knife or any other sharp object. In the concept of simplification of suppositions, Ockham stated, only in the above-mentioned quote, that it was better to seek less than more (Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora).

Not until two centuries after his death was the famous logical razor named after Ockham, in a Franciscan work by Duns Scotus. Nevertheless, he was credited with the authorship quite justifiably, since Ockham preached this one-of-a-kind thought economy, not just in one principle, but in his entire philosophy. He was also the first who did this in evil times.

S.B.

Photo: William of Ockham, colored glass / Wikimedia

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *