The Political Thought of William Ockham

A coherent account of Ockham's aims and the principles operating in all his political works.

Arthur Stephen McGrade (Author)

9780521522243, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 August 2002

284 pages
21.8 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.402 kg

The English Franciscan, William of Ockham (c. 1285–1349), was one of the most important thinkers of the later middle ages. Summoned to Avignon in 1324 to answer charges of heresy, Ockham became convinced that Pope John XXII was himself a heretic in denying the complete poverty of Christ and the apostles and a tyrant in claiming supremacy over the Roman empire. Ockham's political writings were a result of these personal convictions, but also include systematic discourses on the basis and functions of spiritual and secular power as well as exhaustive discussions of Franciscan poverty and the general problem of papal heresy. Ockham emerges in this study as a man deeply committed to natural and Christian human rights, who found these fundamental values so seriously menaced in his time that their survival could be assured only by radical, even revolutionary, personal action and by a basic reworking of traditional political thought.

Preface
Abbreviations
1. Ockham as a political thinker
2. The problem of radical action
3. Theory of institutions: secular and spiritual government
4. Politics and philosophy: natural right and the ethical basis for Ockham's political ideas
5. Politics and theology: secular politics and Christian virtue
Conclusion: Ockham as a constructive political thinker
Bibliography
Index of passages in Ockham quoted, discussed, or cited
Index of names
Subject index.

Subject Areas: History [HB]