Prior to the 20th century, it was a commonly-held belief that nature itself was simple and that simpler hypotheses about nature were thus more likely to be true. Justifications Aesthetic and practical considerations In short, Ockham does not accept the Principle of Sufficient Reason. The version of the Razor most often found in Ockham's work is Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate, –For nothing ought to be posited without a reason given, unless it is self-evident (literally, known through itself) or known by experience or proved by the authority of Sacred Scripture.– For Ockham, the only truly necessary entity is God everything else, the whole of creation, is radically contingent through and through. Though Ockham stated the principle in various ways, the most popular version was written not by him, but by John Ponce from Cork Ireland in 1639 (Meyer 1957). Ockham did not invent this "razor", so its association with him may be due to the frequency and effectiveness with which he used it (Ariew 1976). The term "Ockham's razor" first appeared in 1852 in the works of Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856), centuries after Ockham's death. The origins of what has come to be known as Occam's razor are traceable to the works of earlier philosophers such as Maimonides (1138–1204), John Duns Scotus (1265–1308), Thomas Aquinas (c. "Plurality is not to be posited without necessity" Part of a page from Duns Scotus' book Ordinatio: Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, i.e. 12, Ockham cites the principle of economy, Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora. His nearest pronouncement seems to be Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate, which occurs in his theological work on the Sentences of Peter Lombard ( Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi (ed. No doubt this maxim represents correctly the general tendency of his philosophy, but it has not so far been found in any of his writings. 1285–1349) is remembered as an influential nominalist but his popular fame as a great logician rests chiefly on the maxim attributed to him and known as Ockham's razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem or "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." The term razor refers to the act of shaving away unnecessary assumptions to get to the simplest explanation. In 2005 Marcus Hutter mathematically proved that shorter computable theories have more weight when calculating the expected value of an action across all computable theories which perfectly describe previous observations. In the scientific method, Occam's razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic, and certainly not a scientific result. In science, Occam–s razor is used as a heuristic (rule of thumb) to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models rather than as an arbiter between published models. Therefore, to the same natural effects we must, so far as possible, assign the same causes." To quote Isaac Newton, "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood. When competing hypotheses are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selection of the hypothesis that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities while still sufficiently answering the question. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae (translating to the law of parsimony, law of economy or law of succinctness). Occam's razor may be alternatively phrased as pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate ("plurality should not be posited without necessity"). The principle is attributed to the 14th-century English logician, theologian and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. However, this is often confused, as the 'simple' "is really referring to the theory with the fewest new assumptions." The popular interpretation of this principle is that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor ) is the principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" ( entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |