Philosophical razor explained

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] [2] [3]}

Examples

Razors include:

• Alder's razor (also known as Newton's flaming laser sword): If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation, then it is not worthy of debate.^[4]
• Einstein's razor: "The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience."^{[5] [6] [7]} Often paraphrased as "make things as simple as possible, but no simpler."
• Grice's razor (also known as Giume's razor): As a principle of parsimony, conversational implicatures are to be preferred over semantic context for linguistic explanations.^{[8] [9]}
• Hanlon's razor

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.^[10]

• Hitchens' razor

That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.^[11]

• Hume's guillotine

What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is; prescriptive claims cannot be derived solely from descriptive claims, and must depend on other prescriptions. "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."^{[12] [13]}

• Occam's razor

Explanations which require fewer unjustified assumptions are more likely to be correct; avoid unnecessary or improbable assumptions.

• Popper's falsifiability principle: For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable.^[14]
• Sagan standard

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.^[15]

See also

• • • • • • • Russell's teapotAnalogy formulated by Bertrand Russell to illustrate that the burden of proof lies upon a person making empirically unfalsifiable claims

Notes and References

1. Web site: Garg . Anu . 17 May 2010 . Occam's razor . A.Word.A.Day . 25 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140309141027/http://wordsmith.org/words/ockhams_razor.html . 9 March 2014 . live.
2. Book: Downie, R. S. . November 1989 . Moral Philosophy . Eatwell . John . Milgate . Murray . Newman . Peter . The Invisible Hand . https://books.google.com/books?id=uqqwCwAAQBAJ&q=philosophical+razor&pg=PA213 . 213–222 . Palgrave MacMillan . 9781349203130.
3. Book: McLean . Sheila A. M. . 2013 . First Do No Harm: Law, Ethics and Healthcare . Ashgate . 9781409496199.
4. Mike . Alder . Mike Alder . 2004 . Newton's Flaming Laser Sword . . 46 . 29–33 . 26 January 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171204031512/https://philosophynow.org/issues/46/Newtons_Flaming_Laser_Sword . 4 December 2017 . live. Also available in PDF format: Web site: Mike . Alder . Mike Alder . 2004 . Newton's Flaming Laser Sword . . Mike Alder's Home Page . https://web.archive.org/web/20111114041242/http://school.maths.uwa.edu.au/~mike/Newtons%20Flaming%20Laser%20Sword.pdf . 14 November 2011.
5. Einstein . Albert . Albert Einstein . 1934 . On the Method of Theoretical Physics . Philosophy of Science . 1 . 2 . 165 [163–169] . 10.1086/286316 . 184387 . 44787169 . 0031-8248.
6. Book: Mettenheim, Christoph von . Popper Versus Einstein: On the Philosophical Foundations of Physics . 1998 . Mohr Siebeck . 978-3-16-146910-7 . 34.
7. Book: Geis . Gilbert . Bienen . Leigh B. . Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson . Google Books . 1998 . UPNE . 978-1-55553-360-1 . 39.
8. Hazlett . A. . 2007 . Grice's razor . Metaphilosophy . 38 . 5 . 669 . 10.1111/j.1467-9973.2007.00512.x.
9. Encyclopedia: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GricTheo . Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Implicature, 6: Gricean Theory . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20161211042732/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GriThe . 11 December 2016 . 27 December 2016.
10. Web site: Hanlon's Razor . The Jargon File 4.4.7 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20110430025318/http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/Hanlons-Razor.html . 30 April 2011 . 25 February 2014.
11. Book: Oxford Essential Quotations: Facts . 2016 . . 9780191826719 . Ratcliffe . Susan . 4th . What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. . 4 November 2020.
12. Book: Miles, M. . Inroads: Paths in Ancient and Modern Western Philosophy . . 2003 . 978-0802037442 . 543 . Internet Archive.
13. Book: Forrest . P. . Reality and Humean Supervenience: Essays on the Philosophy of David Lewis . . 2001 . 978-0742512016 . Preyer . G. . Siebelt . F. . Studies in Epistemology and Cognitive Theory . 93 . Counting the cost of modal realism . https://books.google.com/books?id=g0QCcG99otoC&pg=PA93 . Google Books.
14. Book: Popper . Karl . Karl Popper . The Logic of Scientific Discovery . 1972 . Hutchinson . 9780091117207.
15. Book: Sagan, Carl . Carl Sagan . Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science . 2021 . Ballantine Books . 978-0-345-33689-7 . New York.