•Occam’s
Razor:
–William of Ockham (ca. 1285-1349)
–“Plurality should not be posited without
necessity.”
•
•Modern
interpretation (not necessarily Occam’s):
–Don't make any more assumptions than you have to
or
roughly
–The simpler explanation is the preferred one
–
–
•In some ways, if “falsifiability” is what makes a scientific
hypothesis, then one
which is “simpler” (but not trivially so) is more easily “falsifiable” and therefore better.