Wednesday, May 5, 2010

occam's razor

how many throats has it cut ?
how many wrists has it slit ?

16 comments:

Dr. Heckle said...

Good Morning, double entendre.

Very clever word-play! Love it.

Kate said...

Will you please explain Occam's razor to me? I've been hearing it bandied about, but I still don't get it. I am dense today.

JoJo said...

Who is Occam?

justsomethoughts... said...

my good dr - thank you.

kate and jojo -
1. the words that follow are mostly lifted from a few sites. i dont have the eloquence.
2. occam's razor (also known as the law of parsimony) is a principle commonly credited to william of occam (14th century englishman). it says that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity". that basically means that one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities (reasons, if you will) required to explain anything.
so i was basically saying that life is more complicated than boiling it down to it's most simple elements. the sum of the parts seldom explain (or equal) the whole. and that those that insist on making those over-simplified equations often cut others throats and cause others to slit their wrists. sometimes literally. sometimes figuratively.

gahdemmitt! this isn't really working.

have i been remotely helpful ?
no ?
ok.

Grant said...

The World Health Organization reports no recent attacks, so I'm suspicious of a cover-up.

Tracie said...

I was drawing a complete blank till I read your comment. I hadn't heard of this before.

justsomethoughts... said...

grant - as well you should be.

tracie - and ?

Brian Miller said...

and how many has it left cut off by the side of the road...

Unknown said...

how many tires slashed?

you're explanation of occam's razor just did me in :)...

Peace ~ Rene

Matt Conlon said...

Is occam's razor anything like the Motorola Razor???

Everyday Goddess said...

is it like an reductio ad absurdum?

Pearl said...

Clever, and potentially economical.

:-)

Pearl

justsomethoughts... said...

brain - life's highway (thank you mr wariner) is littered with them

rene - in a good way i hope...

matt - it is, but a tad less user friendly.

goddess - not strctly speaking, but it can when followed through. (it seems i'm making less sense as i go)


pearl - economical is what we're after here at acme grommets and whatsitcalled ? sprockets ?

JoJo said...

OK I read your explanation and my brain exploded. ;p

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

very good questions!

hmla2599 said...

Love.