Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Universals

(Originally written December 7, 2006 in Book 7)

History of Philosophy I notes

Duns Scotus (1265-1308)

-Prefers univocal regarding language applied to God

Scouts maintained that not only does God's essence play a role in his existence, but individual men's essences play a role in their existence.

Principle of individuation
-Aquinas claimed that matter was what gave individual things their individuality
-Scotus believed it was an individual essence or a "haecceity" that distinguished us from all other things, not mere matter

Natural Theology
- Far less confident in the power of reason to teach us about God then Aquinas was
- Scotus' standards of proof are much more rigorous than Aquinas' standards

Problem of Induction
-First to identify the problem
- His solution was to focus on the cause and effect and state that there is a certain necessity in causal relations
-His solution was satisfactory until David Hume

Freedom of the Will
-Aquinas held that the intellect was primary, not the will
-Scotus held that the will is primary

The will is:
1. Contingent - has the power of contrary choice
2. Self-caused - the will has no other cause than itself (like God

The self-caused will is an early version of the libertarian doctrine of the will

William of Ockham (ca. 1285 - 1349)

-Born in London
-Franciscan, just like Scotus
-Even more negative regarding natural theology than Scotus
-Faith contradicts reason, but we must follow faith
-Regarded omnipotence as God's power to do literally anything
-God could produce the world in such a way that he made it without any matter
-The object of our knowledge is particulars, but we use universals
-Generally he is regarded as a nominalist, but he could be called a conceptualist
-What is explained on X number of principles is needless explained by more (Ockham's razor)
-Other things being equal, the simpler explanation is better or preferred (Ockham's razor)
-Ockham's Razor was useful in the history of Philosophy and the history of Science

Summary of the thoughts on Universals

Schools of thought on Universals

1. Realism (Plato, Anselm, Augustine) - there are eternal ideas, otherwise we couldn't know general things.
Problem: Where are the ideas

2. Nominalism (Stoics, Sophists) - there are no universals, only particulars
Problem: Can't account for use of general terms or general ideas

3. Conceptualism (Peter Abelard, Locke, Berkeley) - Universals exist as mental concepts