CLEP Humanities : Identifying Titles, Authors, or Schools of Medieval and Renaissance Nonfiction and Philosophy
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Example Questions
Example Question #231 : Literature
Who of the following was the philosopher known for his work the Summa logicae and who is also known for being associated with the so-called doctrine of "nominalism"?
Bertrand Russell
Thomas Aquinas
John Duns Scotus
Peter Abelard
William of Ockham
William of Ockham
William of Ockham (1825-1347) is best known in the popular mind for the so-called "Ockham's razor," a common sense idea that we shouldn't just suppose that there are many kinds of beings in the world necessary for explaining our theories. He is, however, also known (for related reasons) as a "nominalist," that is, as someone who thinks that universal notions like "dog" and "tree" do not subsist in reality but only arise in the mind, which compares individual things that are maximally similar—hence, calling those individual things by a given universal name.
He also wrote the highly influential Summa logicae, which outlined a form of logic that was congenial to this outlook (as well as other aspects of his theory of mind and metaphysics). If you ever doubt that there was sophisticated philosophy in the middle ages, crack open Ockham's works, and you will see that he (along with many others) were quite agile minds indeed!
Example Question #232 : Literature
Against whom did Desiderius Erasmus write in defense of human free will?
Baruch Spinoza
Martin Luther
Norman Cantor
Thomas More
René Descartes
Martin Luther
The great Dutch humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, engaged in a long series of polemics against the Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, on the subject of the freedom of the human will. Because of his particular theological commitments, Luther believed that the human will was so perverted because of the Fall (i.e. the supposed first sin of Adam and Eve) that it was bound by sin and Satan, requiring redemption if it were to be free again. Luther's great work in this debate is known as On the Bondage of the Will or On the Captivity of the Will.
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