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William of Ockham was born around 1285 in the small village of Ockham in Surrey, England. Text and Picture Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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He was ordained a subdeacon by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Southwark, London Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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Sent to study theology at the University of Oxford. Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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Completed study for his bachelor's degree. Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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Lectured on Logic and natural philosophy in a Franciscan school from 1321 to 1324.During these years he wrote many deep works on philosophy and Logic, including his monumental three-part "Summa logicae" in which he lays out the fundamentals of his Logic and its accompanying Metaphysics. Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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He was summoned to the Papal court at Avignon, France, under charges of heresy (possibly levied by the Oxford Chancellor John Lutterell), and a theological commission was asked to review his "Commentary on the Sentences" (a commentary he wrote on the "Book of Sentences" of the 12th Century Italian theologian Peter Lombard, a standard requirement for medieval theology students). Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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Fearing imprisonment and possible execution, Ockham fled Avignon for Pisa in 1328, taking refuge with the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria. Ockham was excommunicated for leaving Avignon, but his philosophy was never officially condemned. When the court of the Emperor returned from Italy to Munich, Ockham went with them and he lived out the rest of his life in the Franciscan convent at Munich. Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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Ockham died some time between 1347 and 1349 (before to the outbreak of the Black Death) in the Franciscan convent at Munich in Bavaria, Germany. Source:https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
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First known use of the term “Occam’s razor” occurs in 1852 in the work of the British mathematician William Rowan Hamilton. Source:https://www.iep.utm.edu/ockham/
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