ND   JMC : History of Medieval Philosophy / by Maurice De Wulf

378. Conclusion. -- Conceptualist terminism and the theory of the sign; a preponderance of logic, the scientia rationalis: such are the special features of the philosophy of William of Ockam. Did these so influence and colour his system that it ought to be classified among anti-scholastic systems, as an affirmation of subjectivism? We do not think so. Ockam made no attempt to upturn the foundations of medieval dogmatism, any more than, for example, Duns Scotus sought to be a pantheist. Intuitive cognition was held by William to be endowed with a full and complete objectivity. And even if a searching criticism shows that Ockam's conception of science and of the universal contains the seeds of subjectivism, still it is only fair to remember that he himself never formulated those dangerous consequences, which, however, became for his disciples the credo of a new philosophy (Ch. III., § 3). Then, as for his other theories, they are based on commonly accepted data, although it must be admitted that in them purity of doctrine steadily declines. From all of which we draw this conclusion: William of Ockam was a scholastic and remained such; but his unfortunate innovations and the general tendencies of his system bear witness to a gradual wane of forces within the sphere of scholasticism.

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