From: david@edenroad.demon.co.uk
On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 14:02:29 -0800, hermes wrote:
> On Feb 1, 8:37 pm, David Mitchell wrote:
>> You are implicitly using Occams Razor.
>
> I am not familiar with this expression, but I guess it is equivalent
> to
> "reason" and "logic".
Not really. From Wikipedia:
"Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to
the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham.
The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as
few assumptions as possible, eliminating, or "shaving off", those that
make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory
hypothesis or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex
parsimoniae (law of succinctness or parsimony): entia non sunt
multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which translates to:
entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity. This is often
paraphrased as "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be
the best one." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal
in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that
introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest hypothetical
entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood."
See also the probabilistic explanation I gave on 20th January.
> I am applying these tools everytime (at least I try to) in all
> honesty.
Not really, not all the time, IMO.
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