A · en.wikipedia.org

• « Attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher and theologian, it is frequently cited as Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which translates as "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity",[1][2] »
• « Libert Froidmont, in his 1649 Philosophia Christiana de Anima (On Christian Philosophy of the Soul) claimed to have coined the phrase novacula occami when he described Gregory of Rimini, one of Ockham's critics.[7] »
• « The probabilistic (Bayesian) basis for Occam's razor is elaborated by David J. C. MacKay in chapter 28 of his book Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms,[36] »

A · en.wikipedia.org

• « Attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher and theologian, it is frequently cited as Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which translates as "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity",[1][2] although Occam never used those exact words. »
• « the most popular version – "Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity" (Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate) – was formulated by the Irish Franciscan philosopher John Punch in his 1639 commentary on the works of Duns Scotus.[9] »
• « The philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction and both hypotheses have equal explanatory power, one should prefer the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions,[4] and that this is not meant to be a way of choosing between hypotheses that make different predictions. »

A · en.wikipedia.org

• « The philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction and both hypotheses have equal explanatory power, one should prefer the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions,[4] and that this is not meant to be a way of choosing between hypotheses that make different predictions. »
• « Similarly, in science, Occam's razor is used as an abductive heuristic in the development of theoretical models rather than as a rigorous arbiter between candidate models.[5][6] »

A · en.wikipedia.org

• « The philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction and both hypotheses have equal explanatory power, one should prefer the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions,[4] and that this is not meant to be a way of choosing between hypotheses that make different predictions. »
• « Similarly, in science, Occam's razor is used as an abductive heuristic in the development of theoretical models rather than as a rigorous arbiter between candidate models.[5][6] »

A · en.wikipedia.org

• « History [edit]The phrase Occam's razor did not appear until a few centuries after William of Ockham's death in 1347. »
• « Formulations before William of Ockham [edit]The origins of what has come to be known as Occam's razor are traceable to the works of earlier philosophers such as John Duns Scotus (1265–1308), Robert Grosseteste (1175–1253), Maimonides (Moses ben-Maimon, 1138–1204), and even Aristotle (384–322 BC).[10][11] »
• « Justifications [edit]Aesthetic [edit]Prior to the 20th century, it was a commonly held belief that nature itself was simple and that simpler hypotheses about nature were thus more likely to be true. »

A · en.wikipedia.org

• « The phrase Occam's razor did not appear until a few centuries after William of Ockham's death in 1347. Libert Froidmont, in his 1649 Philosophia Christiana de Anima (On Christian Philosophy of the Soul) claimed to have coined the phrase novacula occami when he described Gregory of Rimini, one of Ockham's critics.[7] Ockham did not invent this principle, but its fame – and its association with him – may be due to the frequency and effectiveness with which he used it.[8] »
• « The Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) states that "it is superfluous to suppose that what can be accounted for by a few principles has been produced by many". Aquinas uses this principle to construct an objection to God's existence, an objection that he in turn answers and refutes generally (cf. quinque viae), and specifically, through an argument based on causality.[14] »

A · en.wikipedia.org

• « The philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction and both hypotheses have equal explanatory power, one should prefer the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions,[4] and that this is not meant to be a way of choosing between hypotheses that make different predictions. »
• « In the related concept of overfitting, excessively complex models are affected by statistical noise (a problem also known as the bias–variance tradeoff), whereas simpler models may capture the underlying structure better and may thus have better predictive performance. »
• « Karl Popper argues that a preference for simple theories need not appeal to practical or aesthetic considerations. Our preference for simplicity may be justified by the falsifiability criterion: we prefer simpler theories to more complex ones "because their empirical content is greater; and because they are better testable".[39] »

A · en.wikipedia.org

• « The philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction and both hypotheses have equal explanatory power, one should prefer the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions,[4] and that this is not meant to be a way of choosing between hypotheses that make different predictions. »
• « | This section may contain original research. Author of this section cites very few reliable sources, and also consistently conflates simplicity with (logical) truth. Occam's razor is not built to differentiate true hypotheses from false ones. (January 2023) | »