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Occam's Razor
(redirected from Parsimonious explanation)

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(philosophy)Occam's Razor - The English philosopher, William of Occam (1300-1349) propounded Occam's Razor:

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

(Latin for "Entities should not be multiplied more than necessary"). That is, the fewer assumptions an explanation of a phenomenon depends on, the better it is.

For example, some claim that God caused himself to exist and also caused the universe to exist - he was the "first cause" - whereas Occam's Razor suggests that if one accepts the possibility of something causing itself then it is better to assume that it was the universe that caused itself rather than God because this explanation involves fewer entities.

The negation of Occam's Razor would suggest that an arbitrarily complex explanation is just as good as the simplest one. (E.g. God and his cat created a robot called Sparky who built the universe from parts bought from a shop in another dimension).

See also KISS Principle.
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Nevertheless, the point of this example is to show that the phrasing of the question, as an additional source of stimulus control, can influence success or failure on the false belief test and, therefore, may offer a more parsimonious explanation of the performances of some subjects.
Theory of mind: an overview and behavioral perspective by Schlinger, Henry D., Jr. / The Psychological Record
Because wind and light conditions could be excluded as a common denominator determining the body axis orientation, magnetic alignment is the most parsimonious explanation," says the study published in the August 25 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Holy cow! Cattle possess magnetic compass: study by AFP / AFP Global Edition
The most parsimonious explanation of any improvement in the client's condition would be regression to the mean: that is, he came into treatment when at his most distressed point, and the natural variability of mood and behavior then caused movement toward an improved state.
Letter to the editor by Mercer, Jean; Pignotti, Monica / The International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy
 
 
 
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