He denied, for instance, that Platonic forms were real, a position called nominalism that some feel contributed to modern views of epistemology. He was a lively and articulate debater, expressing complex arguments about Divine action, grace, justification and other theological issues equally well with arguments over the fine points of Aristotelian philosophy, about which he disagreed with many of his contemporaries. Ockham contributed to science by grounding his philosophy in the doctrine of creation. William’s views led to his excommunication from the Catholic church.

Scholastic philosophers, furthermore, were not enslaved to Aristotle lively debates often caused deep divisions between them. He also illustrates how a Christian conception of God and nature promoted science. William of Ockham’s life story debunks the common myth that medieval scholars did little except argue about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. He was famous for many things besides the oft-used principle of parsimony named after him, roughly stated as, “Don’t multiply complex causes to explain things when a simple one will do.” The man who gave us “Ockham’s Razor” was a Catholic scholar very learned in the natural sciences.

Map of ockham