OCKHAM, WILLIAM OF

born c. 1285, Ockham, Surrey?, Eng. died 1347/49, Munich, Bavaria [now in Germany] also called William Ockham, Ockham also spelled Occam, byname Venerabilis Inceptor (Latin: Venerable Enterpriser), or Doctor Invincibilis (Invincible Doctor) Franciscan philosopher, theologian, and political writer, a late scholastic thinker regarded as the founder of a form of nominalismthe school of thought that denies that universal concepts such as father have any reality apart from the individual things signified by the universal or general term. Additional reading Arthur Stephen McGrade, The Political Thought of William of Ockham: Personal and Institutional Principles (1974), focuses on Ockham as a political theorist and activist. Gordon Leff, William of Ockham: The Metamorphosis of Scholastic Discourse (1975), examines his system of thought. Marilyn McCord Adams, William Ockham, 2 vol. (1987), discusses in detail his thinking on a variety of complex topics.