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.
>>
>> 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:
>
>"when you have two competing theories which make exactly the same
>predictions, the one that is simpler is the better." (g)
Occam's Razor doesn't apply to Occam's Razor, apparently.
But the guy who was claiming that doctors apply to work on ships because
they're incompetent wasn't really applying Occam's Razor - he was just
making unsupported or irrelevant assertions.
Jack Hamilton
jfh@acm.org
-----
Though in a state of society some must have greater
luxuries and comforts than others, yet all should have
the necessities of life; and if the poor cannot exist,
in vain may the rich look for happiness or prosperity.
The legistlature is never so well employed as when they
look to the interests of those who are at a distance
from them in the ranks of society. It is their duty
to do so; religion calls for it; humanity calls for it;
and if there are hearts who are not awake to either of
those feelings, their own interests would dictate it.
Sir Lloyd Kenyon, Rex vs. Rusby, 1800 |
