The Philosophy of William of Ockham in the Light of Its Principles by Armand Maurer (review)

202 LETTERS IN CANADA 2000 who expect to find drama in the courtroom, this book will disappoint. For those who want a thorough discussion of all that we know about the prosecution of felonies in the Middle Ages, this book will provide them with a satisfying meal. (KENNETH PENNINGTON) Armand Maurer. The Philosophy of William of Ockham in the Light of Its Principles Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies 1999. x, 590. $85.00 Armand Maurer=s new book on Ockham=s philosophy is the fruit of more than four decades of work, which wins through to an irenic and much more accurate reading of Ockham than those of the author=s eminent predecessors at PIMS, Etienne Gilson and Anton Pegis. Maurer wishes to strike the pose neither of the neo-Thomist apologist nor of the Ockhamist-devotee, but rather that of a fascinated interpreter seeking to elucidate the views of a brilliant but controversial Franciscan philosopher and theologian. Like all of Gaul, Maurer=s book is divided into three parts. After laying out what he takes to be Ockham=s fundamental principles about logic and reality, philosophy and theology in part 1, Maurer continues in part 2 with God (the provability of God=s existence, the conceivability of the divine essence, and the divine attributes with special attention to intellect, will, and power) and proceeds in part 3 to creatures (the activity of creation, the angels, the features of the universe studied by physics, and finally the human person). Mostly, Maurer restricts his attention to what he takes to be the philosophical syllabus, but offers short digressions into Ockham=s treatments of the Trinity, Incarnation, and Eucharist the better to illustrate certain methodological and substantive points. Maurer=s book has many strengths. The author regularly orients his readers to the philosophical context in which Ockham took his often distinctive stands. The cast of background characters includes not only Aristotle but also Avicenna and Averroes; not only Aquinas, Godfrey of Fontaines, Henry of Ghent, and Duns Scotus, but also Richard Middleton, Matthew of Aquasparta, Peter John Olivi, and William of Alnwick. Thus, for example, many readers will be instructed by Maurer=s accounts of Godfrey and Henry on divine attributes, of Avicenna=s influence on Henry=s doctrine of divine ideas and of the Neoplatonizing background to Matthew=s accounts of the eternal archetypes. Useful, too, are Maurer=s sketch of the history of the absolute-ordered power distinction, his appreciation of changing understandings of efficient causality in the Aristotelian tradition, his discussion of controversies about the eternity of the world, and the much less covered topic of separate intelligences or angels. Likewise especially good are Maurer=s account of dialectic and his identification of the Razor as a dialectical principle, as well as his skilful contrast between HUMANITIES 203 natural and free powers in terms of the latter=s ability to cease from and initiate its own activity. Moreover, Maurer rightly recognizes how often Ockham charts his own positions off those of Scotus. Scotus gets >good press= in Maurer=s book, whose chapters contain extensive, sympathetic, and largely accurate readings of the Subtle Doctor=s views. Maurer holds his work responsible to the critical editions of Ockham=s philosophical and theological writings, and shows familiarity with extensive secondary literature (the bibliography is twenty-seven pages long). Several times, he is careful to note how comparison of Ockham=s earlier with later works suggests a change of mind B not only the well-known development from the fictum- to the intellectio-theory of concepts, but also Ockham=s varying estimates of the adequacy of Scotus=s proof of a first efficient cause, the possibility of a simultaneous really existing actual infinity, and whether Aristotle thought God was an efficient or only a final cause of other things. There is much here from which to profit. It is with Maurer=s method of analysis that older tropes reassert themselves. He seeks to present Ockham=s thought in the light of the >explicit or implicit principles= and >primary notions= from which it flows and which give it shape and systematic cohesion. Alternatively, he wishes to identify >the central theme,= >the one single thought...