Philosophical razor: Difference between revisions
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*[[Paul Grice|Grice's]] razor (also known as Giume's razor): As a principle of [[Occam's razor|parsimony]], conversational [[Implicature|implications]] are to be preferred over semantic context for [[linguistic]] explanations.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hazlett|first=A.|year=2007|title=Grice's razor|journal=Metaphilosophy|volume=38|issue=5|page=669|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9973.2007.00512.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GricTheo|title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|chapter=Implicature, 6. Gricean Theory|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211042732/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GriThe|archive-date=2016-12-11|accessdate=2016-12-27}}</ref> |
*[[Paul Grice|Grice's]] razor (also known as Giume's razor): As a principle of [[Occam's razor|parsimony]], conversational [[Implicature|implications]] are to be preferred over semantic context for [[linguistic]] explanations.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hazlett|first=A.|year=2007|title=Grice's razor|journal=Metaphilosophy|volume=38|issue=5|page=669|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9973.2007.00512.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GricTheo|title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|chapter=Implicature, 6. Gricean Theory|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211042732/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GriThe|archive-date=2016-12-11|accessdate=2016-12-27}}</ref> |
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*[[Hanlon's razor]]: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/Hanlons-Razor.html|title=Hanlon's Razor|work=[[The Jargon File]] 4.4.7|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430025318/http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/Hanlons-Razor.html#|archive-date=2011-04-30|accessdate=2014-02-25}}</ref> |
*[[Hanlon's razor]]: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/Hanlons-Razor.html|title=Hanlon's Razor|work=[[The Jargon File]] 4.4.7|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430025318/http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/Hanlons-Razor.html#|archive-date=2011-04-30|accessdate=2014-02-25}}</ref> |
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*[[Capitalism]]'s razor: Never attribute to morals that which can be adequately explained by money. |
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*[[Hitchens's razor]]: That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00004248 |title=Oxford Essential Quotations: Facts |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191826719 |editor-last=Ratcliffe |editor-first=Susan |edition=4 |quote=What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. |access-date=4 November 2020}}</ref> |
*[[Hitchens's razor]]: That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00004248 |title=Oxford Essential Quotations: Facts |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191826719 |editor-last=Ratcliffe |editor-first=Susan |edition=4 |quote=What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. |access-date=4 November 2020}}</ref> |
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*[[Hume's Guillotine|Hume's guillotine]]: What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is; prescriptive claims cannot be derived solely from descriptive claims, and must depend on other prescriptions. "If the cause, assigned for any effect, be not sufficient to produce it, we must either reject that cause, or add to it such qualities as will give it a just proportion to the effect."<ref> |
*[[Hume's Guillotine|Hume's guillotine]]: What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is; prescriptive claims cannot be derived solely from descriptive claims, and must depend on other prescriptions. "If the cause, assigned for any effect, be not sufficient to produce it, we must either reject that cause, or add to it such qualities as will give it a just proportion to the effect."<ref> |
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Revision as of 05:14, 22 November 2023
In philosophy, a razor is a principle or rule of thumb that allows one to eliminate ("shave off") unlikely explanations for a phenomenon, or avoid unnecessary actions.[1][2][3]
Examples
Razors include:
- Alder's razor (also known as Newton's Flaming Laser Sword[4]): If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation, then it is not worthy of debate.[4]
- Einstein's razor: "The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience."[5][6][7] Often paraphrased as "make things as simple as possible, but no simpler."
- Grice's razor (also known as Giume's razor): As a principle of parsimony, conversational implications are to be preferred over semantic context for linguistic explanations.[8][9]
- Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.[10]
- Hitchens's razor: That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.[11]
- Hume's guillotine: What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is; prescriptive claims cannot be derived solely from descriptive claims, and must depend on other prescriptions. "If the cause, assigned for any effect, be not sufficient to produce it, we must either reject that cause, or add to it such qualities as will give it a just proportion to the effect."[12][13]
- Occam's razor: Explanations which require fewer unjustified assumptions are more likely to be correct; avoid unnecessary or improbable assumptions.
- Popper's falsifiability principle: For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable.[14]
- Sagan standard: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.[15]
See also
- Abductive reasoning – Inference seeking the simplest and most likely explanation
- Duck test – Classification based on observable evidence
- Explanatory power – Ability of a theory to explain a subject
- Marcello Truzzi § "Extraordinary claims"
- Morgan's Canon – Law of parsimony in comparative (animal) psychology
- Morton's fork – False dilemma in which contradictory observations lead to the same conclusion
- Russell's teapot – Analogy formulated by Bertrand Russell to illustrate that the burden of proof lies upon a person making empirically unfalsifiable claims
- Occam's razor § Anti-razors
- Zebra (medicine) – Exotic diagnosis in medicine which is usually unnecessary and wrong
References
- ^ Garg, A. (17 May 2010). "Occam's razor". A.Word.A.Day. Archived from the original on 2014-03-09. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
- ^ Downie, R. S. (November 1989). "Moral Philosophy". In Eatwell, John; Milgate, Murray; Newman, Peter (eds.). The Invisible Hand. Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 213–222. ISBN 9781349203130.
- ^ McLean, Sheila A. M., ed. (2013). First do No Harm: Law, Ethics and Healthcare. Ashgate. ISBN 9781409496199.
- ^ a b Mike Alder (2004). "Newton's Flaming Laser Sword". Philosophy Now. 46: 29–33. Archived from the original on 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
- Also available as Mike Alder (2004). "Newton's Flaming Laser Sword" (PDF). Mike Alder's Home Page. University of Western Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2011.
- ^ Einstein, Albert (1934). "On the Method of Theoretical Physics". Philosophy of Science. 1 (2): 165 [163–169]. doi:10.1086/286316. ISSN 0031-8248. JSTOR 184387. S2CID 44787169.
- ^ Mettenheim, Christoph von (1998). Popper Versus Einstein: On the Philosophical Foundations of Physics. Mohr Siebeck. p. 34. ISBN 978-3-16-146910-7.
- ^ Geis, Gilbert; Geis, Professor Emeritus of Criminology Law and & Society Gilbert; Bienen, Leigh B. (1998). Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson. UPNE. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-55553-360-1.
- ^ Hazlett, A. (2007). "Grice's razor". Metaphilosophy. 38 (5): 669. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9973.2007.00512.x.
- ^ "Implicature, 6. Gricean Theory". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2016-12-11. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
- ^ "Hanlon's Razor". The Jargon File 4.4.7. Archived from the original on 2011-04-30. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
- ^ Ratcliffe, Susan, ed. (2016). Oxford Essential Quotations: Facts (4 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191826719. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
- ^ Miles, M. (2003). Inroads: Paths in Ancient and Modern Western Philosophy. University of Toronto Press. p. 543. ISBN 978-0802037442.
- ^ Forrest, P. (2001). "Counting the cost of modal realism". In Preyer, G.; Siebelt, F. (eds.). Reality and Humean Supervenience: Essays on the Philosophy of David Lewis. Studies in Epistemology and Cognitive Theory. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 93. ISBN 978-0742512016.
- ^ Popper, Karl (1972). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Hutchinson. ISBN 9780091117207.
- ^ Sagan, Carl (2021). Broca`s brain: Reflections on the romance of science. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-33689-7.
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