Occamism
(ˈɒkəmɪz(ə)m)
[f. name Occam or Ockham + -ism.]
The doctrine or system of the English scholastic philosopher, William of Occam, who lived in the first half of the 14th c., called in later times the ‘Invincible Doctor’.
Occam was a pupil of Duns Scotus, but rejected and opposed the Realism of his master, forming a new speculative sect who revived the tenets of Nominalism. He maintained that general ideas have no objective reality out of the mind, but are merely a product of abstraction. His teachings prepared the way for the overthrow of scholasticism.
Hence ˈOccamist, ˈOccamite, a disciple or follower of Occam; Occaˈmistic a.
| 1579 Fulke Ref. Rastel 752 Brawlings between the Thomists, and Scotists, Albertists, Occamists. 1657 Baxter Winding-sheet Pop. §14 They differ in many hundred points, as the writings of the Schoolmen, the Thomists, and Scotists, and Ockamists..do declare. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. i. iii. §69 Masters of arts were bound by oath never to teach Ockhamism. 1874 J. H. Blunt Dict. Sects, Occamites, the school of English Nominalists, or rather the revivers of Nominalism, who followed William of Occham's lead in the first half of the fourteenth century, and whose opposition to Realism brought about the decline of scholastic philosophy. |