- Lived:
- c. 1301–c. 1358 · Béthune (Picardy) and Paris, France
- Tradition:
- Late medieval scholasticism; master of arts at the University of Paris — the first great career philosopher
- The Big Idea:
- Human knowledge doesn't need to be doubt-proof to be real: science is certain on the assumption that nature runs its usual course — and that kind of certainty is enough to build on.
- In their words:
- "God, when He created the world, impressed into the celestial orbs an impetus which moves them still — without His needing to push them any more." (from his Questions on the Physics, freely rendered)
- If you remember one thing:
- The man whose name is stuck to a starving donkey never mentioned the donkey — what he actually did was answer the skeptics, rewrite the science of motion on the road to Galileo, and prove you could be a philosopher as a job.