William of Ockham (1285-1347) Influential English Franciscan philosopher charged with heresy and excommunicated by the Church because he vigorously defended Saint Francis’ ideal of holy poverty much to the chagrin of Pope John XXII.
Ockham rejected the theory of universals in favor of nominalism and paved the way for idealist thinkers such as Berkeley, Locke and Hume.
He claimed that knowledge is obtained first by intuition, followed by intellectual conceptualization.
He is best known, however, for Ockham’s razor, a philosophical position arguing that it is futile for explanation to use more elements when less will do. This principle of parsimony has become a maxim for contemporary scientific method.
But the question remains as to whether this is always a good thing.
Critics of Ockham’s razor suggest that it can lead to reductionism, particularly in theology, the humanities and the social sciences. » Scholastics
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