8 Bertrand Russell, "My Mental Development," Library of Living Phi- ROGER ARIEW By about 1915, due to a couple of articles by W. 629 f., or Charles Sanders Peirce, "Logic and Mathematics," The Collected Works of Charles Sanders Peirce, Vol. See also Sir William Hamilton, Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, Education and University Reform, Longmans, Brown, Green and Longmans (Edinburgh, 1953), p. In other words, in dealing with any subject matter, find out what entities are undeniably involved and state everything in terms of these entities." Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World, George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 2 "The above extrusion of permanent things affords as an example of the maxim which inspires all scientific philosophizing, namely, Ockham's razor': Entities must not be multiplied without necessity. Etzkorn for his numerous suggestions and corrections pertaining to this article. Ockham's razor as interpreted in this fashion is what Bertrand Russell refers to when he states "Ockham's razor in its original form was metaphysical, it was a principle of parsimony as regards 'entities.' I still thought of it in this way while Principia Mathematica was being written."8 1 Ockham is reputed to have stated "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem." - I wish to thank Girard J. (Metaphysical principles are to be contrasted to methodological principles which are prescriptive principles of explanation independent from beliefs about the simplicity of the world). ![]() We shall refer to principles which are based on the simplicity of the world as metaphysical principles. The simpler the hypothesis, the more likely it is to correspond with the facts. ![]() If we are to discover these facts, we must keep our hypotheses simple. Ockham's razor is thought to be a metaphysical principle it is an expression of the belief that the facts of the world are themselves simple (perhaps because God created the world from first principles). In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ĭID OCKHAM USE HIS RAZOR? In the philosophical literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the dictum called Ockham's razor that entities must not be multiplied without necessity1 is attributed to William of Ockham, the fourteenth century Franciscan philosopher.2 This principle is thought by some (Hamilton and perhaps Mill) to embody the Aristotelian dicta that God and Nature never operate without effect they never operate superfluously.
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