文档介绍：Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought
OCKHAM AND POLITICAL
DISCOURSE IN THE
LATE MIDDLE AGES
The English Franciscan William of Ockham (c. 1285–1347) was one of
the most influential philosophers and theologians in late medieval
Europe. Recent scholarship has shown his profound impact on logic,
metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of language in the late
Middle Ages and beyond. Following a dispute between the papacy and
his Order, Ockham abandoned his academic career and devoted himself
to anti-papal polemics. Twentieth-century scholars have produced diver-
gent and often contradictory interpretations of Ockham as a political
thinker: a destructive critic of the medieval Church, a medieval Catholic
traditionalist, a Franciscan ideologue and a constitutional liberal. This book
offers a fresh reappraisal of Ockham’s political thought by approaching
his anti-papal writings as a series of polemical responses. His aggressive and
persistent attack on the papacy emerges in this study as an attempt to
rescue the ethical foundations of Christian society from the political
influences of heretical popes.
takashi shogimen is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of
Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought
Fourth Series
General Editor:
ROSAMOND MCKITTERICK
Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Sidney Sussex College
Advisory Editors:
CHRISTINE CARPENTER
Professor of English Medieval History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of New Hall
JONATHAN SHEPARD
The series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought was inaugurated
by G. G. Coulton in 1921; Professor Rosamond McKitterick now acts as
General Editor of the Fourth Series, with Professor Christine Carpenter and
Dr Jonathan Shepard as Advisory Editors. The series brings together
outstanding work by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour
extending from political economy to t