[lit-ideas] Re: The Ockham Conversations
- From: "Donal McEvoy" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "donalmcevoyuk" for DMARC)
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2016 07:23:00 +0000 (UTC)
Popper used Occam's razor on occasion.>
Could JLS name these occasions, or at least one?
(I know of none where Popper explicitly used the Razor - on the contrary,
Popper provides arguments against reduction that are arguments against reducing
the numbers of distinct entities that exist, and his stance on the Razor
appears to be that it raises the question of whether entities are "necessary"
but the notion of "necessary" is here highly problematic).
DL
From: "dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, 26 August 2016, 2:51
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Ockham Conversations
McEvoy makes two points. One we may call 'substantive' (I'm using his jargon);
the other, verbal (I'm using his jargon).
SUBSTANTIVE POINT:
"In [some of his] conversations, Occam was [once] told by a fed-up Abbot [whose
name has not reached us]:
i. Never multiply applications of Occam's Razor unnecessarily.
which Occam apparently took it personally. Occam explained to the abbot that
the only use of his razor was to cut "Plato's beard". "But how are you sure he
had one?," was the alleged counter-move by the abbot. "By the busts of him that
have been preserved." "Plato's beard could well be a poetic license." "And so
is my razor, abbot."
VERBAL POINT.
How is "Occam" pronounced. After all, his real name was William, off Ockham.
Why the "Occam"? Is this a mispronounciation?
McEvoy:
"[His name was] pronounce[d], just not correctly."
Just to prove McEvoy wrong that verbal points are ALWAYS substantive, deep down
(and sometimes shallow down) is obvious. McEvoy needs to provide an analysis of
'correctly'. Grice once asked J. L. Austin for a conceptual analysis that would
yield the differences between:
ii. Warnock plays golf, but not rightly.
iii. Warnock plays golf, but not correctly.
iiii. Warnock plays golf, but not properly.
According to Austin, is "X" is MISpronounced, it is indeed, touché, pronounced.
Indeed, if Geary is right, "for every verb that allows for a mis-verb -- e.g.
miscalculate --, it is a law of language that mis-VERB-ing is a form of
VERB-ing."
The crux of the argument is what the proper pronunciation of Ockham is. Alas,
Ockham is never clear on the issue. In Ockham, the natives naturally drop the
'h', and turn the /o/ into an /ou/. Is this correct? WAS this correct in
Ockham's time?
Fortunately, the issue is solved in The Proceedings of the English Place Name
Society.
"We are not sure what "Ock-" is supposed to add to "-ham" and how "Ock-" would
be pronounced as an independent lexeme or as part of a toponym."
In a later issue of the Proceedings, it is stated, "Alas, this is to rectify
our previous hypotheses. Dr. Mueller has found out that in The Domesday Book of
1086, Ockham is spelt "Bocheham," which turns now the question as to how
"Boche" was pronounced -- or mispronounced by that matter. It is not usual that
a 'b-' is dropped, notably when it is initial. For example, it would be odd to
turn "Bob's your uncle" into "Ob's your uncle." It may be that Boche was an
Anglo-Saxon man, or woman. If French, the -ch- would be pronounced as we
Englishmen pronounce the /sh/ but it is very unlike that Boche is a French name.
In his best-selling History of the County of Surrey, H E Malden comes up with
the right answer. Ockham was Book-ham. And so, the razor is strictly The
Bookham Razor.
In the xi cent. the ham (famous for its books) was spelt "Bocheham". This
became "Bocham" in the xii cent. and Bokeham in the xvi cent. Melden notes that
there is Great Bookham bounded on the west by Little Bookham.
Bookham Common isan extensive open space. Ranmore Common is chiefly in Bookham.
Bookham Station was opened in 1885. Roreing House was transferred from Great
Bookham to Fetcham in 1882, for some reason.Bookham Grove is the seat of Mr.
Sydney C. Bristowe.
Miss Fanny Burney, after her marriage with M. D'Arblay, lived for a short time
in a cottage at Bookham.The kennels of the Surrey Union Foxhounds, of which Mr.
F. G. Colman is master, are in Great Bookham.Ranmore was formed in 1860 from
the parishes of Great and Little Bookham.
The church, St. Barnabas, is in Great Bookham. The earliest alleged mention of
GREAT BOOKHAM is in a charter dated 675, by which Frithwald, Subregulus of
Surrey, and Bishop Erkenwald granted to Chertsey Abbey twenty dwellings at
'Bocham cum Effingham.'
The grant was confirmed by Offa in 787, by Athelstan in 933, by Edgar in 967,
and by Edward the Confessor in 1062, and in the Domesday Survey the manor of
'Bocheham' is included in the possessions of the monastery. In the survey of
Surrey taken in 1549, it is stated that John Gardyner, sen., holds in Great
Bookham a curtilage formerly of John Gardyner, on which was built a horse-mill,
and a cottage with a curtilage formerly belonging to the schoolhouse. In
1327 Sir John Dabernon, his son, died seised of 80 acres of land in Eastwick in
Bookham, held of the Abbot of Chertsey, leaving his son and heir of the same
name of full age, who in 1335 conceded to Robert de Aylynchagh and Walter atte
Welle a curtilage called 'Clerkeshagh' and a field called 'La Vynye' at
Aylynchagh in Great Bookham, the latter probably representing the messuage and
lands called 'Vines' mentioned as forming part of the manor of Eastwick in
1571, and the name of which is preserved to the present day in Phenice Farm.
William off Ocham pronounced his name Bookham, and so did his brother. Their
conversations are well recorded:
iv. Bob Bookham: Excuse me Brother Bill, but I did not catch what you just
said. Can you repeat it?
Will Bookham: No.
It is not clear what books were held in the ham, but as Don Quixote said to
Sancho, there is no book, however stupid its cover look, that does not contain
something of interest. So we are hopeful.
Popper used Occam's razor on occasion. The Griceist Schiffer doesn't -- but
then he is famous for his aftershave.
Cheers.
Speranza
Other related posts:
