Will you please explain the principle of Occam's Razor, as simply as possible? I'm not a student, so no

Question

homework help, but I am curious. Think I have the right idea, but will appreciate input from others. Thanks!

Answer 1

The actual translation of Occam's Razor is "plurality should not be posited without necessity," which more or less means that simple is better than complex in understanding a question. If you try to look at something from too many angles you can lose sight of what you're trying to figure out, missing the forest for the trees as the saying goes.

The concept was not original to Occam, it was used by Stoic philosophers and even by Jesus.

Marcus Aurelius recommended that we 'ask of each particular thing what is it in itself, in its substance or material.' Jesus said to 'love God with all your heart, might, mind and strength, and love thy neighbor as thyself; this is the Law and the Prophets.'

This might be called a distillation effect; boiling away all the usless or meaningless or just confusing details and getting down to the bare and essential meaning. Occam's restatement of the principle is excellent and is often parrotted, but in practice it's ignored. How many times have you heard elitists deriding 'simple answers to complex questions?' A whole lot of people just LOVE complexity because it makes them feel superior to those not in the know, so reducing that complexity is anathema.

Still and all, Occam was right, and complexity is frequently nothing more than a smokescreen hiding the truth.

Answer 2

The simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

This one question on here is a good example; this guy told his girlfriend that his mind is unconsciously blocking out the fact that he looked at porn on their computer. The girlfriend thinks he's making it up to not get in trouble.

The simpler explanation is that he's lying and it's probably the correct one.

Answer 3

explanation of any phenomenon(things that happen) should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating any assumption that make no difference to the explaining of the hypothesis or theory.

Friar William of Ockham's Razor...! its purpose was to shave off needless stuff, so one could deal with less, and more meaningful, data(information).

Have fun!

Note... yes, the saying "the simplest explanation is likely to be the right one" is a derivative of it!

Answer 4

i don't know if you don't know''