Quote:
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Originally Posted by willravel
Occam's Razor is about lazy deductive reasoning. It's fine in a pinch, but if you want a real, reliable answer it falls flat.
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I don't mean to single you out,
willravel, since you're not the only one who seems to have little understanding of
parsimony but... Good God! "If you want a real, reliable answer it falls flat?" What on God's green Earth is that supposed to mean?
Parsimony, the actual name for the principle now commonly expressed by that stupid phrase made popular only by
that stupid movie, is a philosophy of pragmatism. The simplest explanation with the requisite properties is the prefered one because... it is the simplest! In other words, why needlessly complicate your life with theories more complex than they need be.
In other words, if you have two theories with equal explanatory power, you should prefer the simpler one because it will make life easier. Is it more "true?" Well, what is truth? They have the same explanatory power so they're both equally true. So, your only decision is whether you want to live an easy life or a hard life. Most of us don't need life to be any harder than it already is. In regards to science, the subject appears to already be too complicated for the minds of most people without needlessly complicating it with non-parsimonious theories!