Read more
1. 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS At the end ofthe 19th century, when the discipline called psychology 1 is said to have become "independent" , attention began to be focused towards nominalistic philosophy from a point of view that can be called psychological. At that time, Vienna, the capital of the Austro Hungarian Dual Monarchy, was a center for several disciplines. It is no wonder that it was there that the research conceming the psychological themes of William Ockham and other nominalists began. Karl Wemer (1821-1888), a Catholic, neo-scholastic scholar, professor of New Testament studies at the Univers?ty of Vienna (1870), and a member ofthe Imperial Academy of Sciences (1874), seems to have planned a history of medieval psychology. However, only fragments of it were printed, among them the following articles: 'Der A verroismus in der christlich-peripatetischen Psychologie des sp?teren Mittelalters' (1881), 'Die nominalisirende Psychologie der Scholastik des sp?teren Mittelalters' (1881) and 'Die augustinische Psychologie in ihrer mittelalterlich-scholastischen Einkleidung und Gestaltung' (1882). 2 Wemer deals especially with Ockham's 1 See Kusch 1995 and 1999. 2 Pluta 1987, 12-13. See Wemer 1881a, 1881b, 1882. (Those three texts were republished in 1964 under the name Psychologie des Mittelalters. ) Prior to those books, Wemer had written about William of Auvergne's, Bonaventure's, John Duns Scotus's and Roger 1 2 CHAPTERONE psychology, among other things, in the second of these articles.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 1.1. Introductory Remarks.- 1.2. Terms and Things.- 2. The Passionate Human Being.- 2.1. The Human Being.- 2.2. Passions of the Souls.- 3. Sensory Passions.- 3.1. Genesis of the Sensory Passions.- 3.2. What Are Sensory Passions?.- 4. Passions of the Will.- 4.1. Genesis of the Passions of the Will.- 4.2. What Are Passions of the Will?.- Conclusion.- Name Index.
Summary
Providing an analysis of passions or emotions in William Ockham's psychology, this study shows how Ockham diverged from the traditional opinion of emotions in arguing that there were emotions in the will, not only in the lower part of the soul. It discusses Ockham's approach to the traditional distinctions between amicable love and wanting love.
