Ockham's Razor

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2007

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophical ideas of William Ockham including Ockham's Razor. In the small village of Ockham, near Woking in Surrey, stands a church. Made of grey stone, it has a pitched roof and an unassuming church tower but parts of it date back to the 13th century. This means they would have been standing when the village witnessed the birth of one of the greatest philosophers in Medieval Europe. His name was William and he became known as William of Ockham.William of Ockham’s ideas on human freedom and the nature of reality influenced Thomas Hobbes and helped fuel the Reformation. During a turbulent career he managed to offend the Chancellor of Oxford University, disagree with his own ecclesiastical order and get excommunicated by the Pope. He also declared that the authority of rulers derives from the people they govern and was one of the first people so to do. Ockham’s razor is the idea that philosophical arguments should be kept as simple as possible, something that Ockham himself practised severely on the theories of his predecessors. But why is William of Ockham significant in the history of philosophy, how did his turbulent life fit within the political dramas of his time and to what extent do we see his ideas in the work of later thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes and even Martin Luther?With Sir Anthony Kenny, philosopher and former Master of Balliol College, Oxford; Marilyn Adams, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University; Richard Cross, Professor of Medieval Theology at Oriel College, Oxford

Transcript

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0:49.2	Hello in the small village of Occam near Woking in Surrey stands a church made ofstone. It has a pitched roof and an unassuming church tower.
0:56.0	Parts of it date back to the 13th century. This means it would have been standing when the village
1:01.5	witnessed the birth of one of the greatest philosophers in
1:04.0	medieval Europe. His name was William and he became known as William of Ockham. In the following
1:09.2	63 years William of Ockham managed to offend the Chancellor of Oxford University, disagree with his own Eccles. William and is derived from the people they govern and were so brilliantly reductive with the theories of his colleagues
1:25.0	that Occam's razor remains a philosophical principle today.
1:29.3	But why exactly is William Occam significant in the history philosophy.
1:34.0	How did his turbulent life fit within the political dramas of his time?
1:37.5	And to what extent do we see his ideas in the work of later thinkers such as Thomas Hobbs and even Martin Luther.
1:43.7	With me to discuss William Wocum, Sir Anthony Kenny, philosopher and former master of Bailey College
1:49.2	Oxford, Marilyn Adams, Regis Professor of Divinity at Oxford University, and Richard Cross, Professor of
1:55.4	of Medieval Theology at Oriel College, Oxford.
1:58.1	Anthony Kenny, William Avockel was born about 1285. Int intellectually speaking, what sort of world was he born into?
	...

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