This page has been validated.
THE MYTH OF OCCAM'S RAZOR
353
- (4) Philosophia Naturalis (Summulæ in Physicorum LL.), Quarta Pars, cap. 1, p. 86b of the Roman edition (1637). In this he denies the reality of an Instant of Time; showing some anticipation of the (New Herakleitean) doctrines associated with the names of Bergson and William James. See also page 85a (at the top). Ockham's doctrine of the Continuum (in regard to Space), as it appears in his Quodlibete, I., Q. 9: Utrum linea componatur ex punctis: has been set out and discussed by Mr. Delisle Burns in Mind of October, 1916 (pp. 506 ff.)
- (5) De Sacramento Altaris, Q. 3 (Utrum corpus quod est quantitas set res absoluta, distincta realiter a substantia), page 41 of the Paris (Blackletter) edition of 1513. I am indebted for this last reference to Mr. C. Delisle Burns, in Mind, October, 1915. Mr. Burns has shown the philosophical incongruity, and consequent improbability of the commonly assumed use of "Entia, etc.," by Ockham. See also page 45. And compare with Scotus on the same subject (Quantity): In Physica, i., Q. 8: tom. ii., p. 30 (3). Refer to §7 (f.) supra. Aristotle's nearest approximations to the doctrine developed by Scotus will be found in cc. 4, 6, and 7 of the First Book of the Physica. "Beltion de elattō kai peperasmena labein, hoper poiei Empedokles: (Praestat autem pauciora et finita principia sumere: quod quidem Empedocles)": cap. 4, p. 188a, lines 17-18 (Bekker). See also c.6; p. 189a, lines 12-13, 20, 26-27; and p. 189b, lines 18-19. Likewise c. 7; p. 190b, lines 35-36; and p. 191a, lines 6-7.
W. M. Thorburn.
