William of Ockham

William of Ockham (about 1288 to 1348) was an English Franciscan philosopher and logician, best known for the principle called Ockham's razor, a bias toward simplicity that holds it is vain to do with more what can be done with less. Born at Ockham near Ripley in Surrey, he entered the Franciscan order at fourteen and was educated in a Franciscan convent, almost certainly in London. He lectured on logic and natural philosophy in a Franciscan school from 1321 to 1324 while waiting to return to university for his doctorate. His opinions drew opposition and he was summoned to Avignon in 1324 to have his writings examined for heresy; the charges numbered 51 and were later reduced to 49. His studies of papal pronouncements on poverty set him against the pope. MacTutor credits him with contributions to mathematical logic, including a three valued logic that became important in the twentieth century. He died in Munich on 9 April 1348.