William of Ockham and Lorenzo Valla: False Friends. Semantics and Ontological Reduction

• Published in: Renaissance quarterly Vol. 56; no. 3; pp. 613 - 651
• Main Author: Nauta, Lodi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Renaissance Society of America 22.09.2003; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Adjectives; Aristotelianism; Cultural background; Cultural differences; Eyes; False friends; History; Literary criticism; Logic; Nominalism; Nouns; Ockhamism; Ontology; Passion; Philosophers; Philosophy, Renaissance; Renaissance philosophy; Semantics; Signification; Terminology; Valla, Lorenzo; Valla, Lorenzo (1407-57); Verbs; William of Ockham; William of Ockham (1285-1349)

At first glance, Lorenzo Valla has much in common with William of Ockham. Both see language as the key to an understanding of the world, criticizing realist ontologies which admit of various abstract entities. Modern scholars have therefore often argued that Valla's transformation of medieval m...