Apptech wrote:

>> How do you feel about Occams razor ? ( Occam's razor (sometimes spelled
>> Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English
>> logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham )
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_Razor
> 
> When seeking to apply Occams razor to a subject care is 
> needed to not mistake what it is intended to mean compared 
> to the many subtle and not so subtle variants that hjave 
> arisen that can say quite different things. In essence 
> Occams Razor is the opinion that "If there are a number of 
> theories that are equally good at apparently explaining an 
> observation you may as well use the simplest one initially".
> 
> - This is only an opinion (although it may be a useful one).
> - It does not say that there is any indication that the 
> theory you choose has a better chance of being right than 
> others (although it may).
> 
> Simplicity is often an indicator of elegance. But sometimes 
> its mainly just an indicator of simplicity.

As such, even though it seems on-topic here and is used every so often,
Occam's Razor seems to be part of the non-provables that are not part of
what's on topic on this list. The only "provable" Occam's Razor seems to
provide is that the simpler theory is simpler. Duh :)  The rest is
"unprovable" and mere opinion (Occam's or the Razor's invoker's).

Besides: the "other things being equal" or being "equally good" usually
already contains a lot of opinion. There is rarely a broad consensus that
two not (yet) falsified theories are "equally good" -- and if they're not,
Occam's Razor doesn't apply. It's a principle that one can apply for
oneself subjectively, but not really in an "objective" manner.

Gerhard

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