The War of the Ways.

The disintegration of the medieval synthesis played itself out in what Germans call die Wegestreit, the "war of the ways." The situation was parallel to that which prevailed among Greek philosophers following the death of Aristotle: those with a philosophical bent would join one of the existing schools, learn its teachings, then do battle with the rival schools. The Dominicans had adopted the "Thomist way" after the teachings of Thomas Aquinas; its major challenger, favored by the Franciscans, was the "Scotist way" after the teachings of John Scotus. By mid-fourteenth century these were already seen as the old ways, and many embraced what was called the "modern way" ("modern" being a relative term), that is, the movement begun by William of Ockham (c. 1285–1347) and his followers.

Ockham's Razor.

If...