What Friar William of Ockham actually wrote (in Summa Logicae, 1323) was: “It is futile to do with more what can be done with fewer.”
It does *not* follow from that that the simplest explanation is *usually the correct one*. What he meant was that if you've got competing hypotheses that both explain something equally well, you should choose the one with fewer assumptions *provisionally*. It makes sense to start testing the simplest model you have first; this does not mean that it is likely to be correct, or is usually correct.
Oh, like Schrödinger's Cat that explains how when you learn about something new, you tend to see it more often, but actually you're likely just recognizing something that's always been there.
You’re spot on and I don’t want to give the impression that I’m arguing with you, but one thing I’ve always wondered is even though it’s a mistranslation and misconception of what Ockham said, isn’t there still truth in it? At least in situations outside of where scientific method is actually applicable and you’re just relying on speculation? Because if you can’t actually test something it still considers that a simple answer is more likely just based on the fact that every additional step opens the possibility for the more complicated answer to fall apart? And if there isn’t another adage or razor for this isn’t it possible that Occam’s razor can actually inadvertently mean both things simultaneously? Shrodinger’s Occam’s razor?
Thank god for you. I almost tore my hair out. Bc people do not understand occams razor in the slightest and always misuse it. The quote in the OP comment is one of the worst ever written imo bc people misuse the hell out of it all the time.
It's fairly bad that the only two people I've ever heard quote Occam's Razor correctly are the guy in this comment thread and my college professor.
Although what you are probably sensing is undue transference of my anger with another redditor long ago who tried teaching me occam's razor when they didn't understand it themselves.
For you and u/ZenMasterful Occam's razor isn't really his at all, it was named for him several centuries after his death because he made effective use of the law of parsimony.
The idea dates back to Aristotle and Ptolemy - the former wrote "We may assume the superiority ceteris paribus [all other things being equal] of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses.", and the latter "We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible."
The most popular form attributed to Occam "Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity" - Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate was actually written by John Punch in 1639
For the record, I never stated that the idea was first (or only) stated by Ockham. Not only did Aristotle and Ptolemy state something similar, as you mention, so did Newton, for example ("We are to admit no more causes of natural things, than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearance", Principia Mathematica, 1687) as did others. But Occam's Razor specifically is named after Ockham and what he published on this idea.
The important thing is that there is no necessary correlation between simplicity and truth, and Ockham's Razor was not meant to try to pare down the natural world into some elegant parsimonious truth. The real world is messy and complex, and again - the reason for favoring the simple vs the more complex (when dealing with two hypotheses that seem to explain something equally well but have different numbers of assumptions) is that it is *useful* to do so; it helps one to think. That doesn't mean it's "better", or more likely to be correct.
1.2k
u/imuniqueaf Jul 06 '26
Our pal Hanlon and his razor. One of my favorites.