Quotes About Occam's razor

In science we look to Occam's razor (or scientific parsimony) to understand phenomena, the concept that the best hypothesis is the one that requires the fewest assumptions.

It was a kind of Occam's razor for law enforcement that adultery explained nearly everything. Infidelity. Lust. Stupidity and weakness.

Maybe. Occam's disposable Bic razor might suggest so.

Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.

Lucy had started thinking about irony as a force in nature, invisible but inescapable, quietly shaping the arcs of human lives. It was like Occam's razor meets Murphy's Law: faced with two equally likely outcomes, the universe was biased toward the most ironic one.

Least hypothesis" held no place of preference; Occam's razor could not slice the prime problem, the Nature of the Mind of God (might as well call it that to yourself, you old scoundrel; it's a short, simple, Anglo-Saxon monosyllable, not banned by having four letters—and as good a tag for what you don't understand as any).

Entities should not be posited unnecessarily.

If a sign is not necessary then it is meaningless. That is the meaning of Occam's razor. (If everything in the symbolism works as though a sign had meaning, then it has meaning.)

used Occam's razor—the principle that given more than one explanation, you should begin by choosing the simplest one—and plausible reasoning to arrive at a neat formula for determining the "correct" price of a warrant.

Most people oversimplify Occam's razor to mean the simplest answer is usually correct. But the real meaning, what the Franciscan friar William of Ockham really wanted to emphasize, is that you shouldn't complicate, that you shouldn't "stack" a theory if a simpler explanation was at the ready. Pare it down. Prune the excess.

Extremism and outrage are simple, relentless, attention-seeking. Rationality and prudence are difficult, exhausting, mundane. Occam's razor works in reverse when it comes to answers: If the answer is easy, it is wrong.

Know what you know. Most people oversimplify Occam's razor to mean the simplest answer is usually correct. But the real meaning, what the Franciscan friar William of Ockham really wanted to emphasize, is that you shouldn't complicate, that you shouldn't "stack" a theory if a simpler explanation was at the ready. Pare it down. Prune the excess. Andrew

Paul Campos, a newspaper columnist, pointed out that the medieval philosopher William of Occam formulated the principle known as Occam's Razor: If two hypotheses purport to explain the same data, then, all other things being equal, the simpler hypothesis is to be preferred. "It takes a very simple hypothesis to explain how the Ramseys could have committed this crime," Campos wrote. "It takes a remarkably elaborate one to explain how anyone else could have.

I'd taken a few swipes with Occam's razor, and that was what I'd ended up with, but that didn't make it so. I really didn't want to have to retreat and regroup with Peele and Alice breathing down my neck on either side. There were still those last few boxes, though. It was possible that Sod's Law was operating, and that the ghost's anchor was just going to turn out to be one of the documents at the very bottom of the stack.

Occam's razor is an important tool in science. It shouldn't be oversold; nature can be complex and bizarre. But as a rule of thumb, it is most sensible to adopt the simplest explanation for an observation until the evidence overwhelms it.

Simplest explanation usually the right one

Occam's razor or the law of parsimony, which states that when two theories compete to explain an unknown phenomenon we should err on the side of the simpler explanation.

Haven't you heard of Occam's Razor: once you have a perfectly simple explanation for something, you don't go looking for ever more complicated ways of explaining the very same thing?

During my sojourn in ironclad atheism, the primary arsenal leveled against Christianity had been its failure on empirical grounds. Surely, enlightened reason offered a more coherent cosmos. Surely, Occam's razor cut the faithful free from blind faith. There is no proof of God; therefore, it is unreasonable to believe in God.

When multiple explanations exist, the simplest is usually correct.

Occam's Razor: All other things being equal, the simplest solution is usually the correct one. —William of Occam, fourteenth century Darwin's Blade: All other things being equal, the simplest solution is usually stupidity. —Darwin Minor, twenty-first century

You had a corollary to Occam's Razor," persisted Syd. "I think it went—'All other things being equal, the simplest solution is usually stupidity.

With all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate. (Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.)