IUBio

The fatal nicks in Occam's Razor

meron at cars3.uchicago.edu meron at cars3.uchicago.edu
Wed Apr 15 03:26:01 EST 1998


In article <35344130.AF883C70 at splusnet.com>, Lee Merkel <merkel at splusnet.com> writes:
>SW wrote:
>
>> Occam's Razor is merely the way any problem or mystery should be
>> approached. With common sense logic and without a vested interest in
>> what the solution 'should' be.
>>
>> Stephen Walsh
>
> Inherent in Occam's razor is the fact that it WILL be wrong
> with a varying ratio, depending on the nature of the subject
> being studied.

No, why?

> It assumes the least unusual explanation for everything.

The least unusual explanation that's consistent with evidence.  That's 
important.

> However, many things in our anthropocentric view of reality
> occur in ways certain to make Occam's Razor very
> uncomfortable. You may find these occurrences in places
> like "news of the weird," the Congressional Record, declassified
> CIA and FBI files, and the pages of science journals (many
> discoveries surprising to logically efficient minds turn up
> as journal reports).

Quite wrong here.  Discoveries turn up based on new evidence.

Mati Meron                      | "When you argue with a fool,
meron at cars.uchicago.edu         |  chances are he is doing just the same"



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