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WILLIAM OF OCKHAM'S THEORY OF CONSCIENCE
by
Sharon Marie Kaye
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of Philosophy
University of Toronto
© Copyright by Sharon Marie Kaye 1997
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ABSTRACT
WILLIAM OF OCKHAM'S THEORY OF CONSCIENCE
Sharon Marie Kaye
Doctor of Philosophy 1997
Graduate Department of Philosophy
University of Toronto
This work is designed to show that there is an implicit
connection between Ockham's academic and political careers in
his theory of conscience.
Thomas Aquinas offers a theory of moral responsibility
according to which the conscientious individual has knowledge
of the rightness of her act which does not preclude her doing
otherwise. His account of the will, however, proves that
this state of affairs never obtains. Ockham's alternative
presupposes that we freely choose our own ends. He is
therefore entitled to assert that conscience is the knowledge
of one's own acts as right or wrong.
The libertarian metaphysics underlying Ockham's ethics
is tested by the problem of unfulfilled prophecy. Thomas
Bradwardine argues that the Antichrist is free not to come
because it is possible for God to undo the past. Thomas
ii
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Buckingham argues for the possibility that the prophecy never
meant that the Antichrist was going to come. Meanwhile,
Ockham is left with the possibility that God lied. Ockhamist
John of Mirecourt shows why this 'heretical' solution is the
only way to save the faith.
Ockham's theory of conscience provides a sound basis for
interpreting his treatise on heresy. Heresy is disobedience,
not to authority, but to the truth. Since the condemnation
of heresy is itself a paradigm instance of this kind of
perversity, freedom of speech prevails by default. Ockham's
conception of a community united by this realization provides
an answer to twentieth-century speech-regulation advocates.
Ockham thought that it is through our obedience to the
truth that Jesus's promise to be with his disciples 'always,
to the end of the age' will be fulfilled. According to
Walter Burley, 'I promise you a Christian' converts with 'A
Christian is promised to you by me.' According to Ockham, in
contrast, it is an opaque construction. This account of the
logic of indefinite promises implies that no individual can
claim to be one of the disciples to whom Jesus was referring.
I hope to leave the reader in a better position to
appreciate the sense in which the claim that Ockham's two
careers are united by his nominalism may be considered
correct.
iii
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply grateful to many individuals for helping me to
complete this work in many ways. I received a great deal of
financial assistance throughout the years, largely traceable
to the generous taxpayers of the province of Ontario. I
would like to express individual thanks to Steve Nadler for
suggesting that I do my graduate studies at the University of
Toronto, where I found what I was looking for; to Robert
Imlay for being interested and reading my earliest drafts; to
Melanie Plenter for helping me with the German literature I
needed to read; to William Courtenay, Marilyn McCord Adams,
Martin Tweedale, John Kilcullen, and Ian Murdoch, for their
pioneering work in the fourteenth century and personal
encouragement; to Massimo Parodi and Eugenio Randy, may he
rest in peace, for providing me with their unpublished
transcription of part of Mirecourt's Sentences Commentary; to
my nonbiological parents, Calvin Normore and Bernard Katz,
sine quibus non; to my dear family, and especially my husband
John, for their self-transcendent love.
iv
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE 1
CHAPTER I: THE ETHICAL DIMENSION
1.1 Introduction 6
1.2 Normative Necessity According to Thomas Aquinas 8
1.3 Normative Necessity According to Ockham 19
1.4 Difficulties With Divine Commands? 33
1.5 Conclusion 42
CHAPTER II: THE METAPHYSICAL DIMENSION
2.1 Introduction 45
2.2 The Thesis that God Can Undo the Past 47
2.3 The Thesis that God Can Lie 58
2.4 The Thesis of the Contingency of Meaning 69
2.5 Conclusion 78
CHAPTER III: THE POLITICAL DIMENSION
3.1 Introduction 82
3.2 Ockham's Theory of Heresy 86
3.3 Ockham's Reductio of Institutional Authority 95
3.4 Ockham's Legacy 100
3.5 Conclusion 105
CHAPTER IV: THE LOGICAL DIMENSION
4.1 Introduction 107
4.2 Supposition Theory 109
4.3 The Case of the Promised Horse 121
4.4 The Case of the Promised Christian 133
4.5 Conclusion 142
EPILOGUE 145
BIBLIOGRAPHY 150
v
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PREFACE
William of Ockham (c. 1285-1347) cuts a fascinating figure in
the history of Western culture. His Summa Logicae, which
elaborates a systematic foundation for nominalist philosophy,
is generally recognized to be one of the most important
intellectual contributions of the Middle Ages. At the same
time, however, Ockham was much more than a logician. He not
only advanced seminal arguments in other areas of philosophy,
but also lived his philosophy in a truly heroic way. Like
Socrates, Ockham was arrested and tried for corrupting young
minds with dangerous ideas. Unlike Socrates, he escaped
alive and devoted the rest of his life to fighting the
tyrannical forces which continue to haunt free thinkers
everywhere.
Most studies of Ockham's thought focus either on his
speculative philosophy or on his political involvement while
ignoring the connection between them. Such
compartmentalizing is particularly tempting in the case of
Ockham because his life was quite conveniently divided into
1
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2
two separate careers. As A. S. McGrade observes, Ockham
himself gives us little excuse to theorize connections:
It is natural when dealing with a medieval theologian
and philosopher to attempt to explain his political
thought by deducing it from his more general speculative
world view. There are, however, at least three
difficulties with such a plan in Ockham's case: the
intrinsic difficulty of correctly interpreting
nominalist theology and philosophy, the nearly total
absence of explicitly political passages in the
speculative works, and a corresponding paucity of
specifically nominalist passages in the political
works.1
It is commonly taken for granted that, if there is a
connection between Ockham's speculative and political
thought, it is to be found in nominalism, where this doctrine
is variously characterized in terms of skepticism,
positivism, fideism, or radical empiricism. The present work
constitutes an effort to clarify the issue by focussing on a
much more specific theme. My thesis is that the connection
between Ockham's two careers lies in his theory of
conscience.
The impetus behind the present work was the desire to
understand Ockham holistically, and to communicate his
philosophy in a way which would be maximally accessible to
non-specialists. I have therefore organized my research into
four free-standing essays. Each features one of the defining
1The Political Thought of William of Ockham: Personal
and Institutional Principles (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1974), 28.
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Description:This work is designed to show that there is an implicit connection between Ockham's academic and political careers in his theory of conscience. Thomas Aquinas offers a theory of moral responsibility according to which the conscientious individual has knowledge of the rightness of her act which does
