Okham's Razor
History
named after the English Franciscan friar William of Ockham.
Principle (law) of Ockham - more precisely: "Okham's Razor" -
was formulated several centuries ago.
The author of this "Razor" is considered to be William of Ockham, a monk, philosopher and theologian of the XIV century.
William Ockham, William of Occam, 1285-1349,
English philosopher, theologian, theologian.
Born in Surrey in a village called Oakham.
He studied theology at Oxford University and later became a Franciscan friar.
In 1324 he was accused of heresy and was one of the active participants heated disputes between the Franciscan order and the Vatican.
At the end of his life he lived in Bavaria, wrote treatises on church and state, criticized the absolute power of the Pope.
Initially, he introduced his "razor" to simplify the theological argument.
Note that the rule, the principle by which he became famous,
various eminent minds have formulated to varying degrees, such as Aristotle:
"Other things being equal, we can assume the superiority of the version
which follows from a smaller number of postulates or hypotheses.
essence
In modern science, the term "Ockham's Razor" refers to the following statement.
which has the fewest unprovable assumptions".
for simplicity, it is called the "leader theory".
Simplified version:
"The simplest theory is most likely the correct one".
There are other interpretations and definitions that are "inferred" from this:
- No new laws should be introduced to explain some (new) phenomenon,
if this phenomenon can be explained by existing laws. - The simplest explanation that does not contradict the data collected should be accepted as correct.
- If there are multiple logically consistent definitions, or
explanations of a phenomenon, then the simplest of them is correct. - Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.
In other words, it is not necessary to introduce new concepts (objects, subjects),
if you can "solve the problem" without them. - between complex and simple, choose simple,
because it is mathematically and "humanly" more likely.
In logical connection with the "Okham's Razor" rule is
the second fundamental principle,
which became famous in the formulation
Marcello Truzzi:
"Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence"
Example.
Information that the daughter of the
President of France has fallen in love with you,
requires much more thorough verification than information about
that a classmate at the institute fell in love with you.
An important conclusion follows from the foregoing.
Each new theory must prove that it is simpler than the leader theory,
or prove that the leader theory is wrong.
Strictly speaking, Ockham's Razor is just a formalized expression
worldly common sense.
Unfortunately, people often "forget"
about him
under the influence of emotions,
addictions, desires for a miracle, and so on.
Henlow Razor
There is another useful rule that allows you to more objectively relate to reality.
It is known as "Henlow's Razor".
This rule arose on the basis of the fact
that in life it is widespread
perception of bad events
as a result of intentional intentions and/or actions.
This is manifested in the fact that people tend to see the manifestation of
malice, aggression, deceit, deceit
where they usually don't.
One of the important psychological reasons:
a person, as a rule, greatly overestimates
the importance of one's own person.
"You know, the boss was passing by, turned his head, and looked at me so casually.
Surely this bastard told me that I was late for work. "
In fact, the boss may have had a severe headache,
or he was thinking about some difficult work problems,
or household troubles.
Based on this kind of reasoning, "Hanlon's Razor"
formulates a simple principle,
which makes it possible
to exclude (“shave off”) unlikely explanations for various situations.
Hanlon's Razor Principle:
can be explained
mistake, stupidity or coincidence.”
In addition, Hanlon's razor claims that various problems
and negative experiences
is part of the life of any person.
However, in the vast majority of cases, there is no malicious intent behind them.
it is simply the result of stupidity, incompetence, the interaction of various events.
When a person sees malicious intent
and collusion behind every negative event,
he is constantly under stress.
it is the preservation of one's own emotional and physical health.
After all, the realization that your fellow tribesmen
just do stupid things, acts less painfully,
than
the opinion that everyone around is set against your interests, your children and you personally.
As with Mr. Ockham, it was not only Henlow who had access to such intellectual discoveries.
For example,
1. “- I would say that you fell into the most common misconception of all,
concerning social and economic phenomena - the theory of the devil.
– What?
“You took for meanness circumstances that are simply the result of stupidity”
[The story "The Logic of Empire", author Heinlein R. A., 1941].