5
and think your work was done. No, to understand the frog and its systems, you dissect
the frog. The world is made up of particulars, Occam observed, and particulars alone.
Contrary to St. Thomas interpretation, Occam claimed that he rightly understood
Aristotle.
Modern commentators largely agree on this point. As Luther scholar Bernard
Lohse concludes, "Occam has often been charged with epistemological skepticism. But
he merely applied the Aristotelian scientific principle more critically than other
thinkers."
6
Further, Occam taught, if you want to understand the universe, you need not
guess at some mysterious teleology behind things that is somehow simply given and
simple to figure out. Rather, things are the way they are simply because God has willed
them to be that way, an idea which has come to be known as voluntarism. Due to this
truth, the universe can be studied and understood on it own merits without constantly
giving reference to all of the complexities of Aristotelian physics. Hence, Occam
developed his law of parsimony, most commonly referred to as the "razor," which states
that entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity. Occams razor effectively made
modern scientific inquiry as we know it possible, and precipitated huge advances in our
understanding of the natural world. Jacques Barzun gives but one example of Occams
razor applied. He states:
William of Occams principle of economy, that the best explanation is the one
that calls for the least number of assumptions, was an argument against Ptolemy,
in addition to the awkward facts. It impelled Copernicus to revisenot destroy
the system, by supposing the sun to be the center instead of the Earth. He was
thereby able to reduce the epicycles from 84 to 30.
7
6
Bernard Lohse, Martin Luther's Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999), 18.
7
Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence (New York: Harper Collins Publishers,
2000), 192.