Ockham’s Razor
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophical ideas of William Ockham including Ockham’s Razor. 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.William of Ockham’s ideas on human freedom and the nature of reality influenced Thomas Hobbes and helped fuel the Reformation. During a turbulent career he 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 one of the first people so to do. Ockham’s razor is the idea that philosophical arguments should be kept as simple as possible, something that Ockham himself practised severely on the theories of his predecessors. 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?
Guests
- Sir Anthony Kenny
4 episodes
Philosopher and former Master of Balliol College, Oxford -
Marilyn Adams No other episodes
Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University -
Richard Cross No other episodes
Professor of Medieval Theology at Oriel College, Oxford
Related episodes
-
St Thomas Aquinas
17 Sep, 2009 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy -
Hobbes
1 Dec, 2005 320 Political science -
Wyclif and the Lollards
16 Jun, 2011 270 History of Christianity -
Bishop Berkeley
20 Mar, 2014 100 Philosophy -
Common Sense Philosophy
21 Jun, 2007 100 Philosophy -
The Ontological Argument
27 Sep, 2012 100 Philosophy -
Empiricism
10 Jun, 2004 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Deism
8 Oct, 2020 210 Philosophy and theory of religion -
The Enlightenment in Scotland
5 Dec, 2002 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
William Hazlitt
8 Apr, 2010 820 English and Old English literatures -
David Hume
6 Oct, 2011 100 Philosophy -
Spinoza
3 May, 2007 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Scepticism
5 Jul, 2012 100 Philosophy -
Roger Bacon
20 Apr, 2017 500 Science -
Edmund Burke
3 Jun, 2010 320 Political science -
Ordinary Language Philosophy
7 Nov, 2013 100 Philosophy -
Bertrand Russell
6 Dec, 2012 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
The Scientific Method
26 Jan, 2012 500 Science -
Wittgenstein
4 Dec, 2003 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Socrates
27 Sep, 2007 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy
Programme ID: b007m0w4
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m0w4
Auto-category: 190 (Modern Western philosophy)