"We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. Therefore, to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes." (Isaac Newton, "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" ["Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"], 1687)
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem."
"Entities are not to be multiplied beyond what is necessary." (John Ponce, cca. 17th century)
"Entities are not to be multiplied beyond what is necessary." (John Ponce, cca. 17th century)
"Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion." (Henry Home [Lord Kames] ," Introduction to the Art of Thinking", 1761)
"Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy." (Edmund Burke, "A Letter to a Noble Lord", 1796)
"It is, after all, a principle of logic not to multiply entities unnecessarily." (Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, "Réflexions sur le phlogistique", 1862)
"The first obligation of Simplicity is that of using the simplest means to secure the fullest effect." (George H Lewes, "The Principles of Success in Literature", 1865)
"In no case may we interpret an action [of an animal] as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale." (Conwy Lloyd Morgan, "An Introduction to Comparative Psychology", 1894) [Morgan's canon, the principle of parsimony in animal research]
"The question is therefore to demonstrate all geometrical truths with the smallest possible number of assumptions." (Augustus de Morgan, "On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics", 1898)
"Scientists must use the simplest means of arriving at their results and exclude everything not perceived by the senses." (Ernst Mach)
No comments:
Post a Comment