Occam's Razor

Occam's Razor  :  is a principal of always preferring the simplest explanation of events to any other.  The principal of Occam's razor is attributed to William of Occam, although there were philosophers before him that had previously employed its use.  

The principal states: "a person should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything, or that the person should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed. This principle is often called the principle of parsimony."

The principal has played a major role in getting rid of fictitious or unnecessary elements from explanations since as far back as the Middle Ages.  Bertrand Russell and other logicians got rid of traditional metaphysical concepts by employing the use of Occam's Razor.

There is however some skepticism as to the extent to which the principal can be applied; especially regarding whether or not a person can determine without any doubt that the assumptions or given entities are not needed in an explanation.

Source: Information taken from an extract in the Grolier Encyclopedia.



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