William of Ockham
c.1287-1347 · Scholasticism · Prominent
Ockham was an English Franciscan. When two explanations both fit the evidence, take the one with fewer moving parts. That is his razor, the rule against multiplying explanatory entities past necessity. He held that only individual things exist, and that a word like humanity is a handy sign with no further entity behind it. Right and wrong rest on what God wills, and he could have willed otherwise.
Signature
The position Ockham is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Universals
- leans Nominalism
- Knowledge
- Sense Experience
Positions on the 14 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- mildly leans Mechanistic (36 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- mildly between Collectivism and Individualism (56 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- leans Beyond Brain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- mildly leans Describable (32 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Universals
- leans Nominalism (82 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- leans Unchanging (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (75 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly between Vertical and Horizontal (44 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- mildly leans Multiplicity (67 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (79 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (89 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Polity
- mildly between Illiberalism and Liberalism (50 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- leans Means (88 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Conviction
- leans Uncertain (30 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
6 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Ockham refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Other
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Other
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Division of Good and Evil
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Direct Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Divine Command / Natural Law
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Libertarian Free Will
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Creation ex Nihilo
What is the origin of reality? - Authority
- Consent of the Governed
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Conventional
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Law
- Natural Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Ascent of the Soul
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?