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This volume contains selections of Ockham's philosophical writings which give a balanced introductory view of his work in logic, metaphysics, and ethics. This edition includes textual markings referring readers to appendices containing changes in the Latin text and alterations found in the English translation that have been made necessary by the critical edition of Ockham's work published after Boehner prepared the original text. The updated bibliography includes the most important scholarship produced since publication of the original edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Hurah for Latin
So, This text is great. I don't much care for medieval philosophy. It lacks the clarity that contemporary philosophy exhibits, sometimes. Anyways, Medieval Philosophy is always difficult for the english speaking student because it's all originally in Latin. However, this book satisfies the serious student by printing the Latin on the facing page. It is amazing. On several occasions as I was working through one of the sections, I had trouble understanding the arguments due to repitition of words or the use of different words in the English. With the Latin on the facing page, I was able to clear up issues that stem from the vagueness of translations. It was easier to see the string of Ockham's argument when viewing it in his orginal language. The preceeding reviewer expresses some of the books other merits. I just felt that you should all be made aware of the fantastic fact that this book has the original Latin.

Good Starter Text for Reading Ockham
This volume contains a nice amount of material for anyone interested in trying to read and understand Ockham's thought. The introduction is a nice treatise explaining the contents and providing the reader (especially the beginning reader) with a good explanation of Ockham's work. The book itself contains these particular philosophical works: 1) The notion of knowledge or science, 2) epistemological problems, 3) logical problems, 4) the theory of '[supposition,' 5) truth, 6) inferential operations, 7) being, essence, and existence, 8) the possibility of a natural theology, 9) the proof of God's existence 10) God's causality and foreknowledge, and 11) physics and ethics. So as you can see there is enough that is provided in this one volume to give any reader a better grasp on some of the things Ockham taught and espoused. If you are interested in Ockham's logical treatises (which is one of the things he is best known for) then I recommend Alfred J. Fredosso's translation of "Ockham's Theory of Propositions: Part II of the Summa Logicae" which is also available here at Amazon. ... Read more

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This study is not only the first extensive analysis of passions or emotions in William Ockham's (c. 1285-1347) psychology, it also contains a detailed analysis of Ockham's little-known two-souls anthropology. The study shows how Ockham diverged from the traditional opinion of emotions in arguing that there were emotions in the will, not only in the lower part of the soul. Because of his new theory of the intellect and the will, Ockham believed that certain phenomena of the will were subjective reactions to occurrent phenomena and could therefore be treated as emotions. The book also discusses Ockham's approach to the traditional distinctions between amicable love and wanting love, and enjoyment and use, and to some other classical themes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

This is about the book, not Amazon...
I'm writing this in response to the only other review submitted for this book. It's too bad that the other review is about whether the reader actually received the book, and nothing at all about its content. I have been studying William Ockham for 20 years now, and this book is pretty much the "go to" book for anybody interested in learning about Ockham's philosophy or his philosophical theology. Marilyn Adams has justifiable acclaim as one of the great scholars of medieval philosophy of our age, and her work on Ockham has been the jumping-off point for virtually all Ockham scholarship since. There are probably more introductory texts out there, and likely texts that are willing to make great generalizations with which non-philosophers might be satisfied, but for careful philosophical analysis of the great theorist of Modernism, this is the book.

Don't even think it!
I tried ordering this two volume set, but they only sent me volume 2.So, I tried again.Same result.I called Amazon about the problem, and they simply refused to carry through the order.Don't waste your time.There are so many other, more profitable things out there to get aggravated about, after all. . . . ... Read more

Product Description
William of Ockham (c. 1285-c. 1387) was the most eminent theologian and philosopher of his day, a Franciscan friar who came to believe that the Avignonese papacy of John XXII had set out to destroy the religious ideal on which his order was based: the complete poverty of Christ and the Apostles. A Short Discourse on Tyrannical Government is an attack on the claims of the medieval Church, specifically the papacy, to universal spiritual and secular power. Written at the time of the emergence of the European nation-states, Ockham's work issued a direct hard-hitting challenge to the claims of limitless papal power. The text is accompanied by a full bibliography, a chronology and an introduction setting his work in its intellectual and historical context. ... Read more

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More than any other single thinker, William of Ockham (c.1285-1347) is responsible for the widely held modern assumption that religious and secular-political institutions should operate independently of one another. His point of departure was a tragic collision between two specifically Christian ideals: that of St. Francis and that of a society guided by the single supreme authority of the Pope. This volume begins with his personal account of his engagement in that conflict and continues with essential passages from the major works in which he attempted to resolve it. ... Read more

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Chapters: William of Ockham, Gersonides, Catherine of Siena, Ramon Llull, Pietro D'abano, Thomas Bradwardine, Jean Buridan, Duns Scotus, Nicole Oresme, Giles of Rome, Abner of Burgos, Albert of Saxony, Liu Ji, Profiat Duran, William Crathorn, Marsilius of Inghen, Oxford Calculators, Petrus Aureolus, John of Paris, Walter Burley, Gregory of Rimini, Sophonias, Richard Swineshead, Adam de Wodeham, Samuel Ibn Seneh Zarza, Nicholas of Autrecourt, John of Jandun, William of Heytesbury, Henry Harclay, Robert Holcot, Robert Alyngton, Adalbertus Ranconis de Ericinio, Walter Chatton, John Dumbleton. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 143. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Blessed John (Johannes) Duns Scotus, O.F.M. (c. 1265 8 November 1308) was one of the more important theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages. He was nicknamed Doctor Subtilis for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought. Scotus has had considerable influence on Catholic thought. The doctrines for which he is best known are the "univocity of being," that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists; the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing; and the idea of haecceity, the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual. Scotus also developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued scripturally for the Immaculate conception of Mary. Little is known of Scotus' life. He was probably born in 1265, at Duns, in Berwickshire, Scotland. In 1291 he was ordained as a priest in Northampton, England. A note in Codex 66 of Merton College, Oxford, records that Scotus "flourished at Cambridge, Oxford and Paris. He began lecturing on Peter Lombard's Sentences at the prestigious University of P...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=19344947 ... Read more

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William of Ockham (c.1285-1347) was the preeminent Franciscan thinker of the 14th century and is generally acknowledged to be a pivotal figure in the transition from the high Aristotelianism of the 13th century to the revolutions in philosophy, theology, and science which mark the Renaissance. Though Ockham was born in England and educated at Oxford, only a small fraction of his corpus has been hitherto translated into English. This two-volume set, the first English translation of "Quodlibetal Questions", is based on the new critical edition of Ockham's theological and philosophical works. The work, most likely written in the early 1320s when Ockham was living in London, comprises mature discussions of many of his favourite topics in logic, ontology, natural philosophy, philosophical psychology, moral theory, and theology. It serves as an introduction to his philosophical method as well as to his characteristic doctrines. The "Yale Library of Medieval Philosophy" series makes available works of the Middle Ages in accurate English translations. Each volume provides a brief introduction, notes and a detailed index. ... Read more

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The Franciscan William of Ockham was an English medieval philosopher, theologian, and political theorist. Ockham is important not only in the history of philosophy and theology, but also in the development of early modern science and of modern notions of property rights and church-state relations. This volume offers a full discussion of all significant aspects of Ockham's thought: logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics and natural philosophy, epistemology, ethics, action theory, political thought and theology. It is the first study of Ockham in any language to make full use of the new critical editions of his works, and to consider recent discoveries concerning his life, education, and influences. ... Read more

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The English Franciscan, William of Ockham (c. 1285-1349), was one of the most important thinkers of the later middle ages. Summoned to Avignon in 1324 to answer charges of heresy, Ockham became convinced that Pope John XXII was himself a heretic in denying the complete poverty of Christ and the apostles and a tyrant in claiming supremacy over the Roman empire. Ockham's political writings were a result of these personal convictions, but also include systematic discourses on the basis and functions of spiritual and secular power as well as exhaustive discussions of Franciscan poverty and the general problem of papal heresy. Ockham emerges in this study as a man deeply committed to natural and Christian human rights, who found these fundamental values so seriously menaced in his time that their survival could be assured only by radical, even revolutionary, personal action and by a basic reworking of traditional political thought. ... Read more

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This book offers the first English translation of the Quodlibetal Questions of William of Ockham (c. 1285-1347)-reflections on a variety of topics in logic, ontology, natural philosophy, philosophical psychology, moral theory, and theology by one of the preeminent thinkers of the Middle Ages. It is based on the recent critical edition of Ockham`s theological and philosophical works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Get this book while it is still available!
This book is a monster text! It is 702 pages and covers every imaginable question that could be asked. For example, "Is an angel in a place through his substance?" or "Does a spoken word lose its significance when a thing [it signifies] ceases to exist?" and many, many more (about 170 questions in all).

This is a paperback one-volume edition to the earlier two volume edition, which means this volume is substantially less expensive than the two volume set. Moreover, the topics covered in this volume are practically exhaustive - logic, ontology, natural philosophy, philosophical psychology, ethics, moral theory, theology, metaphysics, etc.

Added features to this already great text include a lengthy and exhaustive subject index, a short but good introduction, nice explanatory footnotes throughout the text, a short but good selective bibliography, and an index of names and works.

Fred Freddoso (Notre Dame) and the late Francis Kelley have translated this work in such a way that both the scholar of Ockham and the student of Ockham will benefit. Moreover, this is a great introductory work to Ockham for students (such as myself) interested in digging a little deeper into the thoughts and writings of one of the more prominent Medieval thinkers.

The work is laid out as such: a question is posed or asked, if there is something to be noted about the question then it is noted with a nice explanation, a reply to the question is given, and sometimes, depending on the question and the content, a reply to the main argument is given. If there are problems or issue which have arisen about a particular question Ockham is careful to cover these problems and issues. And, all along, footnotes are provided by the translators which help the reader understand the Latin usages (if that issue arises), the context of the question and response, cross references to other works or issues which might help the reader branch out into deeper research, and descriptions and explanations of terms, works, etc. So the book is quite helpful and friendly to all readers, which actually makes reading this text quite helpful. I highly recommend this work! Moreover, buy it soon because it has been my experience that books like these (the really good ones!) for some odd reason usually have a short shelf life! ... Read more

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In this work Ockham proposes a theory of simple predication, which he then uses in explicating the truth conditions of progressively more complicated kinds of propositions. His discussion includes what he takes to be the correct semantic treatment of quantified propositions, past tense and future tense propositions, and modal propositions, all of which are receiving much attention from contemporary philosophers. He also illustrates the use of exponential analysis to deal with propositions that prove troublesome in both semantic theory and other disciplines, such as metaphysics, physics, and theology. This type of analysis plays an essential role in his substantive philosophical and theological works, and in many cases then can hardly be understood without a prior acquaintance with this section of the Summa. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Translation of a difficult work
This is a translation of Ockham's work titled the "Summa Logicae" (Part II). The translators are Alfred J. Freddoso (who alsotranslated the "Concordia" by Luis de Molina) and HenrySchuurman. Much of what Ockham is dealing with in this particular work isthe philosophy of language and logic. Ockham discusses the truth conditionsof propositions (indicative sentences). He begins at the best place, withthe most simple or basic propositions and works his way to the morecomplicated propositions. Past tense and future tensed propositions aredealt with as well as modal propositions. This book is not basic reading.In fact, if you do not have a background in logic you will labor throughthis text. However, if you do have a background in the study of logic thenyou will probably enjoy this book. Some of the table of contents are"On the Classification of Propositions," "What is Requiredfor the Truth of an Indefinite Proposition and of a ParticularProposition," "On Universal Propositions," "On PastTense and Future Tense Propositions," How to Find Out When aProposition, One of Whose Extremes is an Oblique Case, is True orFalse," "On Conditional Propositions, " "On ConjunctivePropositions," "On Hypothetical Propositions and TheirProperties," etc. Moreover, the book contains a very helpfulintroduction by Freddoso which helps to identify and explain what Ockham isdealing with in this work. This is a much needed translation of aPhilosopher whose works are not translated into English like they shouldbe. ... Read more

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This volume publishes new critical editions of five polemical tracts by Ockham that are of great significance for the study of Empire, Papacy, and Church in the first half of the fourteenth century.It completes, posthumously, H.S. Offler's edition of Ockham's shorter political writings (Volumes I-III published by Manchester University Press).The five works are: Compendium errorum Ioannis Papae, Breviloquium de principatu tyrannico, De imperatorum et pontificum potestate, Allegationes de potestate imperiali, and De electione Caroli quarti.Each one is carefully evaluated in a separate introduction. These are important texts for those studying political philosophy and the quarrels between Pope John XXII, the Franciscan friar Michael of Cesena, and the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good translation and edition of a difficult text
The argument contained in this treatise is incredibly difficult to follow and grasp. As a result, this is a difficult text to approach without either a respectible background in medieval (particularily thirteenth and fourteenth century) scholastic thought, or an expert to guide you through.

That said, the text is important if one wants to understand the thought of the fourteenth century. Ockham directly engages Scotus' theory of the simultaneous capacity for opposites as well as touching upon certain of Aquinas' doctrines relating to contingency and related Christian doctrines. Further, the translators have included texts related to the themes of this work from some of Ockham's other works.

In short, this is a good text to add to a collection of medieval philosophy and theology, but not likely to be found engaging to the casual medievalist. ... Read more

Product Description
Ockham's first major work in a 20 year campaign against Pope John XXII, is a critical commentary on the Pope's document "Quia vir reprobus". It includes a discussion of the place of voluntary poverty in religious life, property in civil life, and its relation to natural rights and human law. ... Read more

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Major Study of William of Ockham, A masterpiece
The Philosophy of William of Ockham: In the Light of Its Principles by Armand Maurer (Studies and Texts, No 133: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies) Every philosophy is sustained by a number of elemental principles that give it cohesion and unity. Ockham's is no exception. The principles of the divine omnipotence and the rule of parsimony of thought known as 'Ockham's razor', and others like the principle of non-contradiction, help to shape the entire range of his thought. Many of his conclusions on matters as diverse as God's knowledge, will and power, on creation and the causality of natural things, and on human intuition and morality are reducible to them. These principles are not unique to Ockham but were common to all the scholastics. Yet it is precisely in confrontation with the views of his predecessors and contemporaries such as Scotus, Henry of Gent, Aquinas and Chatton that the particular force and character of his thought are revealed. Over and again he sets each principle to powerful use, but allows no single one of dominate, or to yield all its consequences. Martin Heidegger once declared, 'Every thinker thinks but one single thought'. The original and focal point of Ockham's thought is the singular or individual thing (res singularis), as common nature (natura communis) is the central conception of Scotism, and the act of existing (esse) is of Thomism. With Ockham the traditional conjugations of being come to signify the thing itself in its ineluctable unity. The concept of being is univocal, standing for and signifying individuals. A being is radically diverse and incommunicable, differing from every other being not only in number but also in essence. Indeed, an individual thing can no longer be said to have an essence; it is an essence. Ockham takes his place among the great philosophers because, like them, he drew out all the implications of his insight. He remains a seminal thinker: his denial of common essences, his emphasis on language in philosophical discourse, all anticipate significant developments in modern philosophy. ... Read more