Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,901,535,089 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

Occam's Razor
(redirected from Ockham's Razor)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
Occam's Razor
The simplest expression of scientific truth; where 2 theories exist to explain a similar phenomenon, the one making the fewest assumptions should prevail—i.e., it should be no more complicated than necessary. In keeping with Occam’s razor, generalisations should be based on observed facts and not on other generalisations

Occam's razor
a principle named after William of Occam, a 14th century philosopher. The generalization states that, if there are a number of explanations for observed phenomena, the simplest explanation is preferred. Called also scientific parsimony.


Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
Add definition
Mentioned in?  References in periodicals archive?   Medical browser?   Full browser?
 
First I went to see Ockham's Razor with their stunning, spellbinding pieces of aerial theatre, then Pacitti Company's somewhat disturbing and thought-provoking promenade performance of Finale and finally Northern Broadside's political farce, AccidentalDeath Of An Anarchist, which was extremely well acted, cleverly adapted, topical and hilarious in places
In the spirit of Ockham's razor, this study uses the less complicated method of estimating future participation at a regional level, to show that parsimony is equally successful, more accessible, credible and replicable, and requires less data--a particular issue for regional analysis.
Surely Ockham's razor can be usefully invoked in a case such as this.
 
 
 
Medical Dictionary
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.