William Ockham on metaphysics

About this book

In this book, Jenny Pelletier offers an account of Ockham's concept of metaphysics as it emerges throughout his philosophical and theological work. She argues that Ockham (c. 1287-1347) believed metaphysics to be a fruitful branch of philosophy and gives a preliminary description of its distinctive subject-matter. Metaphysics is a science that studies all beings and their most general features. It works out a general ontology that includes God. Ockham has long been considered by some to be profoundly skeptical of metaphysical knowledge. Recent scholarship tends to focus on his logic (semantics), theory of cognition, concepts, mental language. Jenny Pelletier provides a positive interpretation of Ockham on metaphysics that enriches our current understanding of this seminal medieval thinker.