Occamism

Occamism questions the physical and Aristotelian metaphysics and, in particular, insists the only reality accessible to knowledge is intuitive.

The universals, which exist only in the mind,[1] have no correspondence with reality and are mere signs that symbolize a multiplicity of individuals.

Criticism of the concept of cause and substance, especially by the Occamistic Nicholas of Autrecourt, reduces the sciences to immediate and intuitive ways of knowing.

The Occamists using the nominalist method separate theology from Aristotelian foundations, making them lose any possibility of presenting themselves as science, and reducing confidence in the power of reason applied to supposed demonstrations of God's existence and any immortality of the soul.

[2] Occamism had wide influence between the 14th and 17th centuries,[3] contributing to the progressive dissolution of Scholastic Aristotelianism.