Quote:
Originally Posted by Hainesy_2KT
I've actually never been a fan of occam's razor, it always seemed lazy to me. The simplest and most direct explanation is often the correct one, but far from always. Life is too complex to just shrug your shoulders and say "Occam's Razor". Plenty of prominent philosophers didn't like it either. And for what it's worth, Occam himself was a believer in God.
By the way, Occam's razor is not really a philosophical issue any more. It was formally examined in Kolmogorov complexity theory, which originated in the 1960s.
It was found that "simplicity" is an entirely anthropocentric concept. What anybody considers simple depends on his/her existing views and ideas ("cognitive bias"). Therefore Occam's razor becomes a practical concern: making science simpler for people to understand, and modifying culture to make scientific ideas appear more natural.
