William Ockham on metaphysics: the science of being and God

Abstract

The present work is based on my doctoral research, which was conducted under the supervision of Russell L. Friedman at the institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. iwould like to express my sincere gratitude to him for his ever constructive and generous support – academic as well as personal – throughout my doctorate.iam deeply indebted to Claude Panaccio, who invited me to join the Centre de recherche du Canada en théorie de la connaissance at the Université de Québec à Montréal in Canada as a postdoctoral researcher (2011–12) in order to prepare this book. ibenefited enormously from his incisive criticism and extensive expertise on Ockham’s thought.Over the course of writing this book, ihad a number of stimulating and encouraging conversations with colleagues in Leuven, Montréal, Toronto, Nijmegen, and Australia, notably with Timothy Noone, Aurélien Robert, Martin Pickavé, Calvin Normore, and particularly Cal Ledsham. it is also a pleasure to thank my old friend John Lennox for his invaluable help with finalizing the manuscript. Any remaining errors in form and content are entirely my own.Finally, iwould like to thank my parents, Roy and Deirdre, for their constant patience and understanding and most of all Vincent, to whom this book is dedicated.