'We know too little of the ultimate constitution of the Universe, to assume that it cannot be far more complex than it seems, The appendix at the end has useful locates all the places where Ockham uses the medieval formula Frustra fit &c.Īnd there is a curious observation at the end, where he says To find phrases like 'Entia non temere (sine necessitate) multiplicanda'. (for example Clauberg's Elementa Philosophiae seu Ontosophia (Groningen, 1647), Thorburn also trawled through early modern works (mostly in Latin) that are incredibly obscure The entire works of Aquinas are now on the web ( here), Certainly, Google so far bears his claim out. (I am not so sure what he means by this). The Sentences of Peter Lombard (Bishop of Paris, +1164), and the Summulae Logicales of Petrus Hispanus.Īnd he adds with sufficient moral certainty, Abelard, Hales, Albert, Bonaventura, and Durand. He adds that the axiom does not occur in the two most popular textbooks of the Middle Ages, That the scholastics who used the expression non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitateĭo not include Ockham, Scotus, or Aquinas - I take him to mean that he has read through the entire output Thorburn claims that he can says with almost mathematical certainty The label 'Ockham's Razor' was first applied in 1852 by Sir William Hamilton. The maxim 'Entia non sunt &c' was first associated with Nominalism by Leibniz in 1670.ĥ. However, these maxims, though employed by Ockham, did not originate with him. ( Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate).ģ. It does capture the spirit of genuinely medieval maxims of the form 'plurality is not to be supposed without necessity ( Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem is not medieval at all,īut was invented in 1639, substantially in its present wording, by the Scotist Commentator, John Ponce of Cork.Ģ. That the maxim 'Entities should not be multiplied without necessity' The principle that entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity, is a 'modern myth'. William Thorburn gives convincing evidence that what is now called 'Ockham's Razor', Here is a paper that deserves to be better known.
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