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Essay Archive - On Ockham's Razor and Gulf Ills
On Ockham's Razor and Gulf Ills
The analytic instrument we feel most comfortable wielding, journalistically,
in exploring the cause of Gulf Syndrome is Ockham's Razor. It is named for,
but apparently was not quite explicitly stated in the writings of English
philosopher William of Ockham (circa 1300-1349). Also called the Principle
of Parsimony, it states that: "Entities are not to be multiplied beyond
necessity."
The meaning, as explained in philosophical dictionaries, is that the razor
cuts away useless or gratuitous ideas in explaining a phenomenon. One
should accept, rather, the simplest hypothesis that can explain the data....
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