Customer Reviews (1)

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

Book Description
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.Download Description
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

Book Description
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

Book 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

Customer Reviews (1)

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

Book Description
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

Book Description
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

Book Description
William of Ockham, the most prestigious philosopher of the fourteenth century, was a late Scholastic thinker who is regarded as the founder of Nominalism - the school of thought that denies that universals have any reality apart from the individual things signified by the universal or general term. Ockham's Summa Logicae was intended as a basic text in philosophy, but its originality and scope encompass his whole system of philosophy. Yet the paucity of English translations and the structural complexity of the Latin have made the Summa, until now, almost completely inaccessible.

Here Michael Loux has translated the first part of the Summa, one of the most original and influential medieval texts in logic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Well sorry P.V. Spade, I like it!
P.V. Spade reviewed this translation back in the late seventies after its was first published and validates the two introductory essays as some of the best work he has read on the subject.Coming from his expertise this is big praise.However he denotes that Loux's intention for a readable translation leaves many technical errors and translational fudges in the work itself.My advice is to place these interdisperced errors in the back of your mind as you study the work.If you have read the secondary liturature on Ockham's logic this translation will be invaluable, especially if hacking through the original latin isn't a possibility.Some of the most modern scholarship concerning this text can be found in the Cambridge Companion to Ockham, epecially the first 5 chapters.A refresher on Aristotle's Categories will also establish precedent. ... Read more

Book Description
This book makes available for the first time an English translation of William Ockham's work on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, which contains his theory of scientific demonstration and philosophy of science. John Lee Longeway also includes an extensive commentary and a detailed history of the intellectual background to Ockham's work in the Latin Middle Ages.

Longeway puts Ockham into context by providing a scholarly account of the reception and study of the Posterior Analytics in the Latin Middle Ages, with a detailed discussion of Robert Grosseteste, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Giles of Rome. In a series of appendices, Longeway includes shorter translations of some important related work by Giles of Rome and John of Cornwall. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Provides deep context for Ockham's Science & Razor
Demonstration and Scientific Knowledge in William of Ockham: A Translation of Summa Logicae III-II: De Syllogismo Demonstrativo, and Selections from the Prologue to the Ordinatio by John Lee Longeway (University of Notre Dame Press) makes available for the first time an English translation of William of Ockham's work on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, which contains his theory of scientific demonstration and philosophy of science. John Lee Longeway also includes an extensive commentary and a detailed history of the intellectual background to Ockham's work. He puts Ockham into context by providing a scholarly account of the reception and study of the Posterior Analytics in the Latin Middle Ages, with a detailed discussion of Robert Grosseteste, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Giles of Rome. In a series of appendices, Longeway includes shorter translations of some important related work by Giles of Rome and John of Cornwall.
In his introductory discussion, Longeway examines the exact character of the highest sort of demonstration (demonstratio potissima), the relations of the empirical sciences to mathematics, natural causation and the manner in which natural laws come to be known, the possibility of natural knowledge, our knowledge of God, and the relation of theology to the other sciences. Longeway discusses the way in which scientific epistemology and theory of demonstration corresponds to the metaphysical position of its interpreter, in particular to the Neoplatonism of Grosseteste, the radical Aristotelianism of Giles of Rome and Albert the Great, the more moderate Aristotelianism of Aquinas, and the nominalistic empiricism of Ockham. Throughout the book, Longeway makes a case for Ockham's importance as the founder of empiricism in the West.
Demonstration and Scientific Knowledge in William of Ockham will interest philosophers and historians of science and logic, as well as those who study medieval philosophy or early modern philosophy.
The medievalist needs no convincing that William of Ockham (ca. 1285-1347) is worthy of study. At one time Ockham's views might have been regarded as a clever but uninstructed sign of the decay of Scholastic discourse, but, with the work of such scholars as Philotheus Boehner, Ernest Moody, and Marilyn McCord Adams, those days are now receding into the past. Nonetheless, outside the small circle of students of medieval philosophy and logic, a translation of Ockham's work on the theory of demonstration, even combined with a broader study of its Scholastic background, may seem to require some justification.
This is unfortunate, for contemporary philosophers should find Ockham a fascinating figure. He is the founder of European empiricism. Like Locke and Hume, he relied on the logical analysis of language to ground a rejection of Platonic metaphysics, and he found the source of all our concepts and knowledge of the natural world in our experience of particulars. Moreover, he avoided that error of Early Modern empiricism that now seems most objectionable: the attempt to construct our public world from purely subjective experience. Ockham is a direct realist, relying on the causal relation between concept and object to establish the concept's reference. In his view, what makes belief cognition is the right causal relation between the knower and what is known, not the possession of a sufficient justification for one's belief. Indeed, the accusation of skepticism brought against him, and the skeptical bent of some of his later followers, arises from a typical justificationist misapprehension of his response to skepticism, for Ockham manages without the implausible claim that we can ever have a subjective guarantee that any of our beliefs about the natural world is infallible.'
Ockham's theory of scientific demonstration, the subject of the texts translated and discussed here, presents his conclusions in philosophy of science. In their discussion of demonstration, Ockham and his predecessors approached some of the most fundamental problems of a scientific empiricism, both ancient and modern. How are concepts of natural things formed on the basis of sensory experience? What is the relationship between the notions of everyday people, from which a scientist necessarily begins his research, and the more sophisticated scientific conceptions of these things-- can we and the scientist even be said to be speaking of the same things? How are causal principles rooted in the real natures of things, and how is it possible to know them? How does functionality occur in the natural world? What is the nature and function of scientific knowledge, and how is it related to knowledge of a more ordinary sort? All these questions are dealt with from the standpoint of a scientific realism rooted in the conviction that scientific explanation captures the causal structure of reality.'
But the texts translated here are not only philosophical documents. They depend on, and purport to interpret, Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, and they should be of considerable interest to the modern interpreter of Aristotle. Ockham focuses on a problem that has recently come to the fore in the literature on the Posterior Analytics --how does one demonstrate an attribute of a subject?
... 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

Book Description
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.Download Description
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

Book Description
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. ... Read more