William of Ockham

William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher and theologian who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the 14th century. He is commonly known for ‘Ockham’s razor’ (the idea that the fewer assumptions an explanation has, the more likely it is to be correct). Ockham also produced significant works on logic, physics, and theology.