Abuse of Notation - writings on math, logic, philosophy and art - Occam's razor

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2024-11-14 21:00:06

Let’s talk about Occam’s Razor. The most popular formulation of Occam’s Razor says that “the simplest explanation is usually right”, but I think this is a huge oversimplification of Occam’s razor.

Firstly, I think it is apt to say the simplest explanation that explains the most amount of effects that are observed, e.g. saying that some God created the world is much simpler than coming up with a cosmology, but it doesn’t account for many of the things that we observe.

Secondly, Occam’s Razor wouldn’t indicate that such explanation is “usually right” (Why “usually”? What is a “right” explanation anyways?), it says that it should be preferred, as in that is better than an explanation that contains details that don’t explain anything.

“We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.” — Newton