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Hickam's dictum is a counterargument to the use of Occam's razor in the medical profession. [1] While Occam's razor suggests that the simplest explanation is the most likely, implying in medicine that diagnosticians should assume a single cause for multiple symptoms, one form of Hickam's dictum states: "A man can have as many diseases as he damn well pleases."
Suppose that B is the anti-Bayes procedure, which calculates what the Bayesian algorithm A based on Occam's razor will predict – and then predicts the exact opposite. Then there are just as many actual priors (including those different from the Occam's razor prior assumed by A) in which algorithm B outperforms A as priors in which the ...
Occam's razor: explanations should never multiply causes without necessity. ("Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.") When two or more explanations are offered for a phenomenon, the simplest full explanation is preferable. Named after William of Ockham (c. 1285–1349).
Occam's razor: Explanations which require fewer unjustified assumptions are more likely to be correct; avoid unnecessary or improbable assumptions. Popper's falsifiability criterion: For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable. [7] Sagan standard: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. [8]
Hanlon's razor became well known after its inclusion in the Jargon File, a glossary of computer programmer slang, in 1990. [4] Later that year, the Jargon File editors noted lack of knowledge of the term's derivation and the existence of a similar epigram by William James, although this was possibly intended as a reference to William James Laidlay.
Occam's Razor or Ockham's Razor usually refers to Occam's razor, the philosophical principle. It may also refer to: Ockham's Razor Theatre Company
William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey, in 1287. [13] He received his elementary education in the London House of the Greyfriars. [14] It is believed that he then studied theology at the University of Oxford [7] [8] from 1309 to 1321, [15] but while he completed all the requirements for a master's degree in theology, he was never made a regent master. [16]
Walter Chatton (c. 1290–1343) was an English Scholastic theologian and philosopher who regularly sparred philosophically with William of Ockham, who is well known for Occam's razor. Chatton proposed an "anti-razor". From his Lectura I d. 3, q. 1, a. 1: