Occam's Razor. Cutting off the excess

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

William of Ockham was one of the most popular philosophers of the 14th century. But modernity knows it only because of the authorship of the principle of simplicity. In one of his books, he suggested cutting off all unnecessary complexity, leaving only the required arguments. This principle is called "Occam's razor" and it sounds something like this: "It is not necessary to multiply entities unnecessarily." In other words, he suggests, where possible, keep explanations simple without complicating them.

Limits of Occam's principle

The principle of "Occam's razor" is that reasoning should not be cluttered with unnecessary concepts and terms, if you can do without them. Its wording has changed countless times, but the meaning has remained the same.

Many monographs have been written on how Occam's razor works. This principle has become as significant as the elimination of the third in logic or the theory of relativity in physics.

But is Occam's razor applicable in everyday life? Or it canuse only for scientific purposes? If we talk about the limits of the principle of simplicity, then are such situations possible in science when the economy of thinking does not bring the expected results? And is it always necessary in life to solve problems only as they come?

Of course, such situations are quite real, since both science and our everyday life do not flow smoothly and measuredly. In some cases, it is necessary to make special decisions on which the further course of life or scientific events depends. And there comes a moment when an obsolete theory is replaced by a completely new one. And at this time, you should not solve problems with the help of "Occam's razor". Do not cut off the "extra", otherwise you will miss something very important specifically for you or humanity as a whole.

So, we can conclude that "Occam's razor" is applicable when no qualitative changes are expected in science and life.

An example of applying Occam's formulation

Specialist in the history of philosophy of the Middle Ages, Philoteus Bener, in one of the editions of 1957, reports that "Occam's Razor" is mainly formulated by the author as follows: "It is not necessary to assert much without necessity." It is worth noting that William of Ockham only voiced the principle of simplicity, known since the time of Aristotle. In logic it is called the “law of sufficient reason.”

For an example of a situation to which Occam's principle can be applied, we can cite the answer given by the physicist and mathematician Laplace to Emperor Napoleon. Allegedly, the latter told the scientist that in his theoriesnot enough room for God. To which Laplace replied: "I did not need to consider this hypothesis."

If we reformulate the principle of simplicity and economy into the language of information, then it will look like this: "The most accurate message is a short message".

This rule can be attributed to the actual requirements of concretization of concepts today. Each of the definitions used must be precise to avoid creating redundant ones that claim to be all-encompassing.

In logic, the economy of initial assumptions lies in the fact that none of the accepted theses should follow from the rest. That is, when proving an axiom, there should not be unnecessary statements that are not directly related to it. Although this economy rule is not mandatory.