Ockham's razor

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Ock·ham's razor

also Oc·cam's razor (ŏk′əmz)

A rule in science and philosophy stating that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable; for example, an explanation of a new phenomenon should first be attempted in terms of what is already known, without adding further entities or principles. Also called law of parsimony.

[After William of Ockham.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Ockham's razor

Occam's razor

(Philosophy) a maxim, attributed to William of Ockham, stating that in explaining something assumptions must not be needlessly multiplied. Also called: the principle of economy

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

Ockham's Razor - the principle that entities should not be multiplied needlessly; the simplest of two competing theories is to be preferred

law of parsimony, Occam's Razor, principle of parsimony

principle, rule - a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; "the principle of the conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion"; "the right-hand rule for inductive fields"

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And the point isn't merely that we could cut the objects away with Ockham's razor: "[W]e can't make sense of ontological borders as additional bits of metaphysical landscape, above and beyond feature distributions."

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Parsimony is an English word which means "the quality of being careful with money or resources", or "economy in the use of means to an end".1 The law of diagnostic parsimony,2 inspired by Ockham's razor,3 is an accepted part of medical pedagogy.

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However, another interpretation of those events, applying Ockham's razor (i.e., the simplest explanation) rather than a rejiggered nineteenth century German idealism, is that back in 1989 one part of the Left made a deal with another.