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'No more causes' in Newton's Principia
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:lightgreen; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | Newton's first rule of reasoning
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| style="padding:15px;" |«''We are to admit '''no more causes''' of natural things '''than''' such as are both true and '''sufficient''' to explain their appearances.''»
<div style="padding-left:40px;">— Isaac Newton: ''Principia''<ref name="Rappaport1997">{{cite book |title=When Geologists Where Historians, 1665-1750 |author=Rhoda Rappaport |publisher=Cornell University Press |place=Ithaca and London |year=1997 |pages=62 |isbn=978-0801-433863 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=30U3W2kI7foC |quote=In teh famous language of Newton's first rule of reasoning in the ''Principia'', ... }}</ref> </div>
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'''Occam's razor''' or '''Ockham's razor''' is a principle that can loosely be described as ''the explanation that introduces the fewest new assumptions is the one that is most likely to be correct''. It is also called a methodological tool reflecting the imperative ''don't invent unnecessary entities to explain something.''<ref name="DeniableDarwin">{{cite book
'''Occam's razor''' or '''Ockham's razor''' is a principle that can loosely be described as ''the explanation that introduces the fewest new assumptions is the one that is most likely to be correct''. It is also called a methodological tool reflecting the imperative ''don't invent unnecessary entities to explain something.''<ref name="DeniableDarwin">{{cite book
|author=David Berlinski
|author=David Berlinski