Philosophical razor

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]

Razors include:

  • Occam's razor: Simpler explanations are more likely to be correct; avoid unnecessary or improbable assumptions.
  • Grice's razor: As a principle of parsimony, conversational implications are to be preferred over semantic context for linguistic explanations.[2][3]
  • Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.[4]
  • Hume's razor: "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."[5][6]
  • Hitchens's razor: "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
  • Newton's flaming laser sword: If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation, then it is not worthy of debate.[7]
  • Popper's falsifiability principle: For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable.
  • Sagan standard: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Garg, A. (17 May 2010). "Occam's razor". A.Word.A.Day. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  2. ↑ Hazlett, A. (2007). "Grice's razor". Metaphilosophy. 38 (5): 669. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9973.2007.00512.x.
  3. ↑ "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Implicature". Implicature, 5. Gricean Theory. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
  4. ↑ "Hanlon's Razor". The Jargon File 4.4.7. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  5. ↑ Miles, M. (2003). Inroads: Paths in Ancient and Modern Western Philosophy. University of Toronto Press. p. 543. ISBN 978-0802037442.
  6. ↑ Forrest, P. (2001). "Counting the cost of modal realism". In Preyer, G.; Siebelt, F. 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.
  7. ↑ Mike Alder (2004). "Newton's Flaming Laser Sword". Philosophy Now. 46: 29–33.
    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 on 14 November 2011.
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