Difference between revisions of "Occam's Razor"
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| − | Occam's Razor is the philosophical principle that, all things being equal, the answer with the fewest assumptions is usually the right one (often refered to as the "simplest" solution).<ref>http://skepdic.com/occam.html</ref> However many scholars have disputed over the definition of "simplest". Some suggest "simplest" means the shortest possible description (called [[Kolmogorov complexity]]); other suggest that it means the description with on average shortest word length.<small>citation needed</small> Still others have argued that the simplest model is the one which makes the most precise predictions. | + | Occam's Razor is the philosophical principle that, all things being equal, the answer with the fewest assumptions is usually the right one (often refered to as the "simplest" solution).<ref>http://skepdic.com/occam.html</ref> However many scholars have disputed over the definition of "simplest". Some suggest "simplest" means the shortest possible description (called [[Kolmogorov complexity]]); other suggest that it means the description with on average shortest word length.<small>[citation needed]</small> Still others have argued that the simplest model is the one which makes the most precise predictions. |
Revision as of 03:01, March 25, 2007
Occam's Razor is the philosophical principle that, all things being equal, the answer with the fewest assumptions is usually the right one (often refered to as the "simplest" solution).[1] However many scholars have disputed over the definition of "simplest". Some suggest "simplest" means the shortest possible description (called Kolmogorov complexity); other suggest that it means the description with on average shortest word length.[citation needed] Still others have argued that the simplest model is the one which makes the most precise predictions.