philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, a razor is a

principle A principle may relate to a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs or behavior or a chain of reasoning. They provide a guide for behavior or evaluation. A principle can make values explicit, so t ...

rule of thumb In English language, English, the phrase ''rule of thumb'' refers to an approximate method for doing something, based on practical experience rather than theory. This usage of the phrase can be traced back to the 17th century and has been associat ...

that allows one to eliminate (shave off) unlikely explanations for a phenomenon, or avoid unnecessary actions. * Alder's razor (also known as Newton's flaming laser sword): If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation, then it is not worthy of debate. * Grice's razor (also known as

Guillaume Guillaume may refer to: People * Guillaume (given name), the French equivalent of William * Guillaume (surname), the French equivalent of Williams Places * Guillaume (crater), Moon, Earth-Moon System, Solar System * Guillaumes, Vence, Nice, Alpes ...

's razor): As a principle of parsimony, conversational

implicatures In pragmatics, a subdiscipline of linguistics, an implicature is something the speaker suggests or implies with an utterance, even though it is not literally expressed. Implicatures can aid in communicating more efficiently than by explicitly sayi ...

are to be preferred over semantic context for

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

explanations. *

Hanlon's razor Hanlon's razor is an adage, or rule of thumb, that states: It is a philosophical razor that suggests a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for human behavior. It is purportedly named after one Robert J. Hanlon, who submitted the statement ...

: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. * Hitchens' razor: That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. * Hume's guillotine: What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is; prescriptive claims cannot be derived solely from descriptive claims, and must depend on other prescriptions. "If the cause, assigned for any effect, be not sufficient to produce it, we must either reject that cause, or add to it such qualities as will give it a just proportion to the effect." *

Occam's razor In philosophy, Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor or Ocham's razor; ) is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. It is also known as the principle o ...

: Explanations that require fewer unjustified assumptions are more likely to be correct; avoid unnecessary or improbable assumptions. * Popper's

falsifiability Falsifiability (or refutability) is a deductive standard of evaluation of scientific theories and hypotheses, introduced by the Philosophy of science, philosopher of science Karl Popper in his book ''The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' (1934). ...

criterion: For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable. *

Sagan standard "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (sometimes shortened to ECREE), also known as the Sagan standard, is an aphorism popularized by science communicator Carl Sagan. He used the phrase in his 1979 book '' Broca's Brain'' and th ...

: Positive claims require positive evidence, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

References

{{set index Arguments Philosophical analogies Rhetorical techniques

See also

References