Occam's Razor annoys me a lot. Or not the razor itself, but the way people use it so willy nilly. I was sure there must be some clever logical reasoning behind it that explained why people used it to justify so much of their thinking. But there's no logic behind it - just the idea that simple explanations are more likely than others. Which is entirely sensible, but that shouldn't give you any extra confidence in one explanation just because it's simple.
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There is no logic behind logic. Logic is logical because it is logical. That’s circular reasoning…but that’s all we have. In the end, things are true because they seem to be the case. Occam’s Razor seems to work, and so it is the best tool we have. You really should read Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.
Dave / 1:29pm / 7 May 2007
Yes. You’re right. But people don’t tend to emphasise that when they’re talking about Occam’s Razor. It’s often presented as something closer to deduction than heuristic. I’ll try and find that book.
Ryan / 3:30pm / 7 May 2007