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Occam's razor and parsimony support, but do not prove, these axioms of science. The general principle of science is that theories (or models) of natural law must be consistent with repeatable experimental observations.
Razors include: Alder's razor (also known as Newton's flaming laser sword): If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation, then it is not worthy of debate. [2] Grice's razor (also known as Guillaume's razor): As a principle of parsimony, conversational implicatures are to be preferred over semantic context for linguistic ...
While evolution is not an inherently parsimonious process, centuries of scientific experience lend support to the aforementioned principle of parsimony (Occam's razor). Namely, the supposition of a simpler, more parsimonious chain of events is preferable to the supposition of a more complicated, less parsimonious chain of events.
Occam's razor might fall under the heading of "elegance", the first item on the list, but too zealous an application was cautioned by Albert Einstein: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." [13] It is arguable that parsimony and elegance "typically pull in different directions". [14]
Parsimony may refer to: The law of parsimony, or Occam's razor, a problem-solving principle Maximum parsimony (phylogenetics), an optimality criterion in phylogenetics; Parsimony Press, a fine press brand ran by typographer Robert Norton
Parsimony, known colloquially as "Occam's razor", refers to the principle of selecting the simplest of competing hypotheses. In the context of ancestral reconstruction, parsimony endeavours to find the distribution of ancestral states within a given tree which minimizes the total number of character state changes that would be necessary to ...
The theory of Occam learning is a formal and mathematical justification for this principle. It was first shown by Blumer, et al. [1] that Occam learning implies PAC learning, which is the standard model of learning in computational learning theory. In other words, parsimony (of the output hypothesis) implies predictive power.
Occam's Razor, seeking the simplest explanation, forms much of the basis of modern scientific thought; a theory which accounts best for all observed phenomena, does not predict disproven phenomena, and does not introduce unobserved phenomena is to be preferred. [1]