Talk:John Punch (theologian)

July 2012
We're going to need a new page about another man named John Punch. Evidently he was the first African man to be sentenced to slavery and thus the first legal African slave in America. He was also a descendent of President Obama. http://politics.heraldtribune.com/2012/07/30/obama-found-to-have-ancestor-who-was-black-slave-on-his-mothers-side/ texxs (talk) 16:30, 30 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Agreed, and I don't think there would really be a WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. Disambiguation would be the best choice for this page between, say, John Punch (slave) and John Punch (theologian). Of course, until the former gets a page, we don't need to do anything. --BDD (talk) 17:36, 30 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I've stubbed the John Punch (slave) page but do not have much experience with disambiguation pages. Thanks! Ruodyssey (talk) 23:49, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

March 2019
Is this person the author of popular phrase "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity"? Other wiki article says so: "Nevertheless, the precise words sometimes attributed to William of Ockham, Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity),[15] are absent in his extant works;[16] this particular phrasing comes from John Punch"[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#William_of_Ockham 149.156.124.14 (talk) 17:10, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

Punch not the originator
Re: “Punch was ultimately responsible for the now classic formulation of Ockham's Razor”

Robert Andrews has provided evidence that the dictum was earlier stated in the early 1400s by Bero Magni de Ludosia and his follower Magister Thomas. See Robert Andrews, Bero Magni de Ludosia, Questions on the Soul: A Medieval Swedish Philosopher on Life. Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et Mediaevalia (2016) 279 n. 33: “Magister Thomas presents the earliest known appearance of one version of Ockham’s Razor: ‘Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate.’ Magister Thomas Recapitulatio III q. 15, f. 270v. Bero’s close formulation is in Lib. II q. 18 n. 77: ‘non sint multiplicanda entia sine necessitate’.”

The mistaken credit to Poncius has been repeated numerous times.

It is very difficult to prove an earliest occurrence.

Robert Andrews boethius@hotmail.com 81.237.236.94 (talk) 15:49, 24 October 2021 (UTC)