This volume contains selections of Ockham's philosophical writings which give a balanced introductory view of his work in logic, metaphysics, and ethics. This edition includes textual markings referring readers to appendices containing changes in the Latin text and alterations found in the English translation that have been made necessary by the critical edition of Ockham's work published after Boehner prepared the original text. The updated bibliography includes the most important scholarship produced since publication of the original edition.

The key ideas on authority of a powerful and historically important thinker.

A collection of the influential ethical writings of medieval philosopher William of Ockham, published in English for the first time.

You are holding, to date the only critical study of the works by William of Ockham regarding his perception and teaching of the Corpus Christi. Within these pages are the main corpus of works which have been carefully screened from all extant works. The era is the early 1300's and the Christian Church is under siege of by the gradual infiltration of the writings of Aristotle into the West was not without profound repercussions on the speculative thought of the day. This was true not only in the field of natural philosophy but in an even more marked degree in the field of logic. Philosophy gained for itself more of an autonomous position without, however, becoming completely divorced from theology, the queen of the sciences. The great speculative minds of the day began to inquire more earnestly as to just which truths the human mind could demonstrate with certainty. The field of positive theology became more and more distinct from that of speculative theology.

William of Ockham (c. 1285-c. 1347) was the most eminent and influential theologian and philosopher of his day, a giant in the history of political thought. He was a Franciscan friar who came to believe that the Avignonese papacy of John XXII had set out to destroy the religious ideal on which the Franciscan order was based: the complete poverty of Christ and the apostles. This is the first complete text by Ockham to be published in English. The Short Discourse is a passionate but compelling statement of Ockham's position on the most fundamental political problem of the medieval period: the relationship of supreme spiritual authority, as represented by the pope, to the autonomous secular authority claimed by the medieval empire and the emerging nation-states of Europe. Professor McGrade's introduction, and the notes on the translation make the volume wholly accessible to a modern readership, while a full bibliography and chronology are included as further aids to the reader.