9
Occam feared positing universals in a way similar to Platonism, universal ideas which
superceded even God. In other words, Occam wanted the biblical God who creates ex
nihilo, not the demi-urge-like craftsman Plato suggests in The Timaeus.
13
This is why,
for instance, Occam claimed to be the true heir of Aristotle. Occam did not deny the
objectivity of truth, he simply cautioned against adding a fourth or possibly more
transcendental(s) or hypostasis(es) than the one God in three persons. To do that would
be to commit heresy. As philosopher Ernest A. Moody stated, "Insofar as Ockham is
called a nominalist, his doctrine is not to be construed as a rejection of any ontological
determination of meaning and truth, but rather as an extreme economy of ontological
commitment in which abstract or intenstional extralinguistic entities are systematically
eliminated by logical analysis."
14
[emphasis mine]
A second reply to the charges against Occam and the Reformation listed above
include the fact that Luther and Calvin were hardly faithful or slavish followers of
nominalism as it developed throughout the remainder of the scholastic period. Luthers
Disputation Against Scholastic Theology, for example, is replete with references to
Luthers significant and sizeable disagreements with Occam and Gabriel Biel, ostensibly
Occams most famous disciple.
15
Specifically, Luther and Calvin chafed at the
13
Platos cosmology and theology are contained in his dialogue, Timaeus, available in
The Dialogues of Plato, vol. 2, trans. B. Jowett (New York: Random House, 3-70).
14
Ernest A. Moody, "William of Ockham," in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 8,
ed. Paul Edwards (New York: The Macmillan Company and The Free Press, 1967;
reprint, 1972), 307.
15
For example, thesis 56 reads, "It is not true that God can accept man without his
justifying grace. This is in opposition to Ockham." Cf. Luther, Basic Theological
Writings, 17.