La disputa en torno a la eternidad del mundo en el siglo XIV

El giro argumentativo de Guillermo de Ockham

Abstract

The final stage of the medieval dispute over the eternity of the world, fifty years after the 1277 Condemnation, ends with William of Ockham´s position. He consolidates a doctrine closely related to that of Thomas Aquinas, specifying –as a characteristic contribution - an argumentative twist that goes from the realm of facts to the realm of probability. In this research, we set out to analyze Ockham´s position from the Quaestiones Variae (OTH, VIII, q. 3, 59) and the second Quodlibeta (OTH, IX, II, q. 5, 128), that Venerabilis Inceptor would write in Avignon around 1323- 24. Both presentations analyze the issue from two different and complementary perspectives: the nature of the world and the perspective of divine omnipotence. Ockham´s position is identical: the  impossibility of giving a categorically definite answer makes it necessary to give way to an alternative way of thinking; eternity does not imply manifest contradiction and the arguments for it are not conclusive. Ockham does not close his argument with the effective possibility of an eternal world but – and here lies his contribution to the dispute – with the mere probability of the fact. A probability that is founded ultimately on the positive affirmation of the divine omnipotence.