Guillaume d'Ockham
The good is what God wills: his will is subject to no outside rule.
Life
English Franciscan friar (c. 1287-1347), theologian and logician at Oxford, later in conflict with the papacy at Avignon. He refuses to multiply entities without necessity ("Ockham's razor"), stresses the freedom of God's will and develops a logic of terms. He is one of the major figures of the late Middle Ages.
Main works
A treatise on logic and language: only individuals exist, universals are signs.
His Oxford theology lectures, on knowledge, the will and God's power.
Disputed questions on theology and philosophy.
In his own words
« Plurality is never to be posited without necessity. »
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceGod is free and omnipotent; he can do anything that does not imply a contradiction.
Ockham, Quodlibeta septem (vers 1324)
Knowing individual things begins with intuitive experience of them, not with abstract ideas.
Ockham, Ordinatio, Prologue (vers 1318)
The will is free: given the same causes it can will or refuse.
Ockham, Quodlibeta septem (vers 1324)
Obligation comes from God's command: the good is what God wills.
Ockham, Quodlibeta septem (vers 1324)
Reason cannot demonstrate many theological truths, such as the Trinity; they are held by faith.
Ockham, Quodlibeta septem (vers 1324)