A.Word.A.Day--Ockham's razor

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The Magic of Words

May 17, 2010

This week's theme
Whose what?

This week's words
Ockham's razor

William of Ockham

Section of a stained glass window at a church in Surrey, UK

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Our language is sprinkled with terms coined with the formula X's Y. There's baker's dozen and bull's eye and deadman's hand (a poker hand).

There are diseases and syndromes and body parts named after physicians (Parkinson's disease); there are theorems, laws, and numbers named after scientists (Avogadro's number); there are plants named after botanists (Ahnfelt's seaweed); and there are places named after explorers, though some are named after no one ("no man's land" :-).

This week we'll look at five terms that follow this X's Y or "someone's something" formula, terms named after specific people that answer: Whose what?

Ockham's razor or Occam's razor

PRONUNCIATION:

(OK-ehmz RAY-zuhr)

MEANING:

noun: The maxim that the simplest of explanations is more likely to be correct.

ETYMOLOGY:

After William of Ockham (c. 1288-1348), a logician and theologian, who is credited with the idea.

NOTES:

Ockham's razor states that "entities should not be multiplied needlessly". It's also called the principle of parsimony. It's the idea that other things being equal, among two theories the simpler one is preferable. Why razor? Because Ockham's razor shaves away unnecessary assumptions. Ockham's razor has applications in fields as diverse as medicine, religion, crime, and literature. Medical students are told, for example, "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."

USAGE:

"But not everyone in Washington is a believer in Occam's razor, so all manner of other theories flourished."
A DC Whodunit: Who Leaked And Why?; Reuters (UK); Sep 22, 2009.

Explore "Ockham's razor" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again; skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts. -Anonymous

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