Aristotle once said (in his dialect of Greek) that “Wikipedia is Wikipedia,”
which Theophrastus interpreted as a joke. In any case, in the “Occam’s razor”
entry, there is the (apparently inevitable) Popperian reference.
“Karl Popper argues that a preference for simple theories need not appeal to
practical or aesthetic considerations.”
“Our preference for simplicity may be justified by its falsifiability
criterion.”
“We prefer simpler theories to more complex ones,” and here comes Popper’s
direct quote,
“because,” Popper notes, “their empirical content is greater; and
because they are better testable.”
(Popper 1992).
[Excursus: So, if Grice modifies the razor to apply not to ‘entities,’ as Punch
preferred, but to ‘senses,’ Popper sort of modifies it to apply to theories, as
do the formulations of Occam’s razor in the Stanford encyclopedia entry on
‘simplicity’ (by Baker):
“Other things being equal, if T1 is more ontologically parsimonious than T2
then it is rational to prefer T1 to T2.”]
“The idea here is that a simple theory,” and it is in the section subtitled
“Simplicity” where Popper expands on this, “applies to more cases than a more
complex one, and is thus more easily falsifiable. This is again comparing a
simple theory to a more complex theory where both explain the data equally
well.”
The reference “(1992)” may mislead, but it’s “The Logic of Scientific
Discovery,” second edition.
Cheers,
Speranza
REFERENCES:
Popper, Karl (1992). "7. Simplicity". The Logic of Scientific Discovery (2nd
ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 121–132. ISBN 84-309-0711-4.
