Occam’s Razor
What is it:
In philosophy, a razor is a principle or rule of thumb that allows you to eliminate (or “shave off”) unlikely explanations for a phenomenon.
Occam’s razor, also known as the principle of parsimony, is a problem solving principle that states that among several possible explanations, the one that requires the fewest assumptions or entities is usually the most likely to be correct.
Why? Because the more assumptions there are, the more possibilities there are for error, and the simplest explanation is usually – but not always – the correct one.
Occam's Razor is a valuable tool in scientific and philosophical reasoning, as it encourages researchers and thinkers to prioritize elegant and straightforward explanations over complex and convoluted ones.
For example:
Imagine your smartphone's battery is draining much faster than usual.
Simple Explanation:
Applying Occam's Razor, you might first consider the simplest and most common explanation: a misbehaving app running in the background. You check your battery usage settings and discover that a particular app is consuming an unusually high amount of battery. You force-stop or uninstall the app, and the battery drain issue improves.
Complex Explanation:
Alternatively, you could jump to more complex explanations, such as a failing battery, a software glitch in the operating system, or even a hardware issue.
By addressing the most straightforward and likely cause of the problem, we avoid potentially costly solutions and are able to resolve issues efficiently and without unnecessary complexity.
Occam's Razor teaches us not to discount complexity when it is genuinely warranted. Rather, it calls on us to distinguish between complexity stemming from the intricacies of reality and complexity born out of cumbersome reasoning.
Prompts for application:
Am I adding unnecessary complexity to this decision?
Which is the most straightforward explanation?
Which solution requires the fewest assumptions to work?
If I had to explain this to a child, how would I simplify it?
