William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar who studied at Oxford. He got into conflicts with the pope over the poverty of the Church and ended up taking refuge in Munich, under the emperor's protection. He is remembered for Ockham's razor, the principle that says not to multiply explanations without need.
Core ideas
We should not assume more entities than necessary to explain something
Only individual things exist, and universals are merely names and concepts
The pope's power has limits and must not override civil power
The tradition: Nominalist
A nominalist holds that general concepts, like humanity, are only names, and that only individuals exist. Ockham is the greatest defender of this thesis in the Middle Ages.
