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fixing typo + Aquinas
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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.''»
| 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>
<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 the 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
Occam's razor is a ''guiding principle''. That is, it says that the explanation with the fewest assumptions ''is to be preferred'', not ''is correct''. The explanation with the fewest assumptions can turn out to be the wrong explanation.
Occam's razor is a ''guiding principle''. That is, it says that the explanation with the fewest assumptions ''is to be preferred'', not ''is correct''. The explanation with the fewest assumptions can turn out to be the wrong explanation.
== Historical Background ==
When addressing the cosmological argument in Article 3 ("asks the question whether God Exists") of Question 2 (called "The existence of God") of the first part of the ''[[Summa Theologica|Summa]]'', [[Aquinas]] argues that "it is superfluous to suppose that what can be accounted for by a few principles has been produced by many." This constraint is now familiar as Occam's Razor, even though William of Occam lived and wrote after Aquinas's death.<ref name="Devils">{{Cite book
| author = David Berlinski
| title = The Devil’s Delusion
| publisher = Basic Books, New York, 2009
| isbn = 978-0-465-01937-3
| pages = 66
| chapter = The Cause
| url=http://www.davidberlinski.org/devils-delusion/about.php
| quote = }}</ref>
== Illustration ==
== Illustration ==