Indeed, no sooner was the harmony apparently established by Aquinas than Duns Scotus began this negative criticism, which is carried much farther by William of Occam.
But the name with which the Nominalism of the 14th century is historically associated is that of the " Invincible Doctor," William of Occam William of who, (q.v.),, as the, author of a doctrine which came occam to be almost universally accepted, received from his followers the title Venerabilis inceptor.
The hypostatizing of abstractions is the error against which Occam is continually fighting.
Occam reproaches the " modern Platonists " for perverting the Aristotelian doctrine by these speculations, and claims the authority of Aristotle for his own Nominalistic doctrine.
The universal is not anything really existing; it is a terminus or predicable (whence the followers of Occam were at first called Terminists).
