This is a translation of Ockham's work titled the "Summa Logicae" (Part II). The translators are Alfred J. Freddoso (who also translated the "Concordia" by Luis de Molina) and Henry Schuurman. Much of what Ockham is dealing with in this particular work is the philosophy of language and logic. Ockham discusses the truth conditions of propositions (indicative sentences). He begins at the best place, with the most simple or basic propositions and works his way to the more complicated propositions. Past tense and future tensed propositions are dealt with as well as modal propositions. This book is not basic reading. In fact, if you do not have a background in logic you will labor through this text. However, if you do have a background in the study of logic then you will probably enjoy this book. Some of the table of contents are "On the Classification of Propositions," "What is Required for the Truth of an Indefinite Proposition and of a Particular Proposition," "On Universal Propositions," "On Past Tense and Future Tense Propositions," How to Find Out When a Proposition, One of Whose Extremes is an Oblique Case, is True or False," "On Conditional Propositions, " "On Conjunctive Propositions," "On Hypothetical Propositions and Their Properties," etc. Moreover, the book contains a very helpful introduction by Freddoso which helps to identify and explain what Ockham is dealing with in this work. This is a much needed translation of a Philosopher whose works are not translated into English like they should be.

This book is a monster text! It is 702 pages and covers every imaginable question that could be asked. For example, "Is an angel in a place through his substance?" or "Does a spoken word lose its significance when a thing [it signifies] ceases to exist?" and many, many more (about 170 questions in all).

This is a paperback one-volume edition to the earlier two volume edition, which means this volume is substantially less expensive than the two volume set. Moreover, the topics covered in this volume are practically exhaustive - logic, ontology, natural philosophy, philosophical psychology, ethics, moral theory, theology, metaphysics, etc.

Added features to this already great text include a lengthy and exhaustive subject index, a short but good introduction, nice explanatory footnotes throughout the text, a short but good selective bibliography, and an index of names and works.

Fred Freddoso (Notre Dame) and the late Francis Kelley have translated this work in such a way that both the scholar of Ockham and the student of Ockham will benefit. Moreover, this is a great introductory work to Ockham for students (such as myself) interested in digging a little deeper into the thoughts and writings of one of the more prominent Medieval thinkers.

The work is laid out as such: a question is posed or asked, if there is something to be noted about the question then it is noted with a nice explanation, a reply to the question is given, and sometimes, depending on the question and the content, a reply to the main argument is given. If there are problems or issue which have arisen about a particular question Ockham is careful to cover these problems and issues. And, all along, footnotes are provided by the translators which help the reader understand the Latin usages (if that issue arises), the context of the question and response, cross references to other works or issues which might help the reader branch out into deeper research, and descriptions and explanations of terms, works, etc. So the book is quite helpful and friendly to all readers, which actually makes reading this text quite helpful. I highly recommend this work! Moreover, buy it soon because it has been my experience that books like these (the really good ones!) for some odd reason usually have a short shelf life!

Ockham is generally said to be a difficult philosopher. As the translator says in his introduction, one does not read the Latin of Ockham; one studies it. So it helps little that this book gives such a small selection of Ockham's works. Harldy enough to give the reader even a vague idea of Ockham's stance concerning universals. Because translations of Ockham are hard to find, or very expensive, this book has its place (it is often the only translation that can be found in libraries), but it would be best to buy a single, complete work of Ockham and to read that.

This is a good sampling of important exerpts from Ockham's writings dealing primarily with metaphysics and ethics. It is useful in a course on medieval philosophy or on Ockham in particular.

Ockham is an important philosopher who's nominalism can be reasonable viewed as the beginning of british empiricism. It is the shift from the metaphysical realism of the ancient and medieval worlds to the nominalism and mechanistic understanding of human beings that is essential for understanding the difference between early and modern world views. Ockham's volunterism in ethics is also the foundation of the Protestant reformation (at least Luther's reformation) and also for the moral relativism of modern ethics, especially Hume.

Needless to say, I am in sharp disagreement with Ockham and find that his approach is fundamentally wrong and his criticisms of Scotus' realism rather weak. A good read on the influence of Ockham's nominalism in breaking down society is Louis Dupre's "Passage to Modernity." Check it out.

This volume contains a nice amount of material for anyone interested in trying to read and understand Ockham's thought. The introduction is a nice treatise explaining the contents and providing the reader (especially the beginning reader) with a good explanation of Ockham's work. The book itself contains these particular philosophical works: 1) The notion of knowledge or science, 2) epistemological problems, 3) logical problems, 4) the theory of '[supposition,' 5) truth, 6) inferential operations, 7) being, essence, and existence, 8) the possibility of a natural theology, 9) the proof of God's existence 10) God's causality and foreknowledge, and 11) physics and ethics. So as you can see there is enough that is provided in this one volume to give any reader a better grasp on some of the things Ockham taught and espoused. If you are interested in Ockham's logical treatises (which is one of the things he is best known for) then I recommend Alfred J. Fredosso's translation of "Ockham's Theory of Propositions: Part II of the Summa Logicae" which is also available here at Amazon.