![]() Thorburn in Mind 27, it was Duns Scotus who “fully and finally established” the principle. It goes back to Aristotle’s statement in De Caelo that the number of postulates should be “as few as possible, consistently with proving what has to be proved.” Thomas Aquinas offered a similar formulation in the thirteenth century. This principle was not entirely new with Duns Scotus either. What can be done with fewer would in vain be done with more. Plurality is not to be posited without necessity.įrustra fit per plura, quod potest fieri per pauciora. Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate: 1308), who also has precedence in the Razor principle in two seminal statements: Ockham was preceded at Oxford, if not actually taught there, by John Duns Scotus (d. ![]() Given that the Scots are known for parsimony in the economic sense, we might expect this principle to have Scottish roots and it does. Never worn.” Or consider the rapt description by François Jacob, Nobel laureate in medicine, of the double helix configuration of DNA: “This structure was of such simplicity, such perfection, such harmony, such beauty even, and biological advantages flowed from it with such rigor and clarity, that one could not believe it untrue.” History of the PrincipleĪs Webster’s suggests, the locus classicus of conceptual parsimony is the principle of Ockham’s Razor, so named – or rather misnamed – for the English monk William of Ockham (or Occam), c.1285-c.1349 AD. Think of Hemingway’s story in six words: “Baby shoes for sale. What Webster’s does not mention is the aesthetic aspect of parsimony, although it is conspicuous both in art and science. It is the ‘explanatory’ meaning that is of primary interest to philosophers, although the line between it and means-end “principles of least effort” as Nicholas Rescher calls them, is rather fuzzy and neither sense is far removed from thriftiness with a dollar (pound, euro, renminbi). 2) Economy in the use of means to an end economy of explanation in conformity with Occam’s razor. Webster’s Ninth gives this definition of ‘parsimony’:ġ) The quality of being careful with money or resources the quality or state of being niggardly: stinginess. SUBSCRIBE NOW Metaphysics Parsimony (In as few words as possible) Toni Vogel Carey wonders whether nature loves simplicity.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |