Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Instances of using Occam's razor to justify belief in less complex and more simple theories have been criticized as using the razor inappropriately. For instance Francis Crick stated that "While Occam's razor is a useful tool in the physical sciences, it can be a very dangerous implement in biology.
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:
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 "Occam's Razor" (2004), an episode of House "Occam's Razor" (2022), an episode of The Watcher
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]
The concept is related to Occam's razor as, according to such a heuristic, simpler explanations are preferred to more complicated ones. Only in situations where extraordinary evidence exists would an extraordinary claim be the simplest explanation. [ 9 ]
^α De contemptu mundi (book 1, v. 952) satirical work by Bernard of Cluny, a Benedictine monk of the 12th century who attacked the corruption of the laity and the Church of his time and who mentioned the nominalistic polemic of the 12th century against the reality of universals: a debate that, according to philosophical historiography, Occamism will take up in the 14th century. [5]
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]
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."