Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article <2Yy3g.4178$q%6.1425@trnddc01>,
> J Carnaghie wrote:
>
> > In the thread "Taking 15 month old on Alaska cruise"
> > For those of you who might have wondered just who or what Occam's
> > Razor might be:
> >
> > Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed
> > to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of
> > Ockham.
Verbatim from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed
to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of
Ockham.
> > Occam's razor states that the explanation of any phenomenon should
> > make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no
> > difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis
> > or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as:
> >
> > entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,
> >
> > which translates to:
> >
> > entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.
> >
> > Furthermore, when multiple competing theories have equal predictive
> > powers, the principle recommends selecting those that introduce the
> > fewest assumptions and postulate the fewest hypothetical entities. It
> > is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > John in LALALand
> Interesting that you would take so much time and effort to explain:
Creative plagiarism. :-)
>
> "when you have two competing theories which make exactly the same
> predictions, the one that is simpler is the better." (g)
One word will do: "passimony".
-- Bob.
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