"Ockham's Razor" - In Our Time BBC Radio 4


http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime.shtml

BBC Radio 4 resident knowall, Melvyn Bragg, comes to the on topic aid
of shm yet again. The usual listening options are available on the web
page.

"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.

In the following 63 years William of Ockham 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 so
brutally reductive with the theories of his colleagues that ?Ockham?s
Razor? remains a philosophical principle today.

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?

Contributors

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"
--

Julian Richards

www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"

THIS MESSAGE WAS POSTED FROM SOC.HISTORY.MEDIEVAL
.

Relevant Pages
Loading