Occam's Razor
    n 1: the principle that entities should not be multiplied
         needlessly; the simplest of two competing theories is to be
         preferred [syn: Occam's Razor, Ockham's Razor,
         principle of parsimony, law of parsimony]

Occam's Razor

    The English philosopher, William of Occam
   (1300-1349) propounded Occam's Razor:

   Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

   (Latin for "Entities should not be multiplied more than
   necessary").  That is, the fewer assumptions an explanation of
   a phenomenon depends on, the better it is.

   For example, some claim that God caused himself to exist and
   also caused the universe to exist - he was the "first cause" -
   whereas Occam's Razor suggests that if one accepts the
   possibility of something causing itself then it is better to
   assume that it was the universe that caused itself rather than
   God because this explanation involves fewer entities.

   The negation of Occam's Razor would suggest that an
   arbitrarily complex explanation is just as good as the
   simplest one.  (E.g. God and his cat created a robot called
   Sparky who built the universe from parts bought from a shop in
   another dimension).

   See also KISS Principle.

   (1995-11-09)