William of Occam (c.1289–1349). Occam is a village near Guildford in Surrey, from which William presumably took his name. An Oxford Franciscan, he is said to have been a pupil of Duns Scotus and may have later studied in Paris. His thought developed when his order became involved in a protracted and acrimonious dispute with the papacy on the subject of evangelical poverty, which the Franciscans embraced. Occam's writings in defence of his order led to a summons to Avignon and a condemnation by Pope John XXII. In 1328 Occam and his superior fled to Munich, where they were given protection by the emperor, Lewis of Bavaria. The continuing controversy led Occam to examine the question of sovereignty and the relations of church and state. He argued that the papacy had no standing in temporal matters and that within the church it was subordinate to a general council: though the sovereignty of temporal rulers originally derived from the people, it could not be challenged, save for gross turpitude. In his general methodology, he emphasized both the power and limitations of logic: it could not touch revealed truth and faith, and since it dealt largely with terms of argument, the principle of economy should apply and as few assumptions as possible should be made—hence, ‘Occam's razor’.

J. A. Cannon

William of Occam (1285–1349) English scholastic philosopher and theologian. Contributing to the development of formal logic, he employed the principle of economy known as Occam's Razor; that is, a problem should be stated in its most basic terms. As a Franciscan monk, he upheld Franciscan ideas of poverty against Pope John XXII and was excommunicated. In 1328, he was imprisoned in Avignon, France, but he escaped and fled to Munich, where he later died.