Yes, absolutely. There is a direct, deeply influential lineage connecting William of Ockham’s voluntarism and nominalism to the modern concept of "natural rights" found in Thomas Hobbes and John Locke . [ 1 , 2 ] Historians of philosophy (most famously Michel Villey) argue that Ockham effectively invented the modern concept of subjective rights —shifting the definition of a "right" from an objective moral balance ( what is fair ) to an individual power or faculty ( what I own/can do ). [ 1 ] Ockham's extreme stance on the Euthyphro dilemma laid the groundwork for Hobbes and Locke in three profound ways: 1. The Shift from Objective "Right" to Subjective "Rights" Before Ockham (Aquinas/Aristotle): "Right" ( ius ) meant objective rightness —the proper, balanced distribution of things within a community based on an intrinsic cosmic order. After Ockham: Because Ockham denied any intrinsic cosmic order (arguing everything depends on ...
A Zero-Sum Conflict: Lamont argues that subjective rights turn human society into an arena of competing wills. If a right is my personal power, and law is a limitation on that power, then what is gained by authority is lost by the individual, and vice versa. This paved the way for modern radical individualism and the modern totalizing state. [1]
The ideas of liberty of indifference , an autonomous conscience , and subjective rights find their historical roots in the shift from classical Thomism to late-medieval nominalism , later developing through early modern scholasticism . [ 1 , 2 ] While mainstream Catholic theology—anchored by St. Thomas Aquinas—traditionally favored a "freedom for excellence" (where freedom is the power to choose the objective good), a specific lineage of Catholic theologians laid the groundwork for these modern concepts. [ 1 , 2 ] 1. Liberty of Indifference & Nominalism The concept of liberty of indifference ( libertas indifferentiae ) posits that freedom is the absolute, neutral power of the will to choose between contraries (good or evil, acting or not acting), independent of any natural inclination toward the good. [ 1 ] William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347): A Franciscan friar and the father of nominalism, Ockham separated the will from the intellect. He argued that the human will i...