ockham

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Definition of ockham in English English dictionary

Related Terms

Ockham's razor

(Bilim, İlim) A rule in science and philosophy stating that entities should not be multiplied needlessly. This rule is interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known. Also called law of parsimony

Ockham's razor

Methodological principle of parsimony in scientific explanation. Traditionally attributed to William of Ockham, the principle prescribes that entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. In practice, this means that if a phenomenon can be explained without assuming the existence of an entity, then philosophers and scientists should not assume the entity's existence. The history of science provides many examples of the principle's application (e.g., the rejection by scientists of the hypothesis of a luminiferous ether in response to Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity). See also materialism

William of Ockham

or William of Occam born 1285, Ockham, Surrey?, Eng. died 1347/49, Munich, Bavaria English Franciscan philosopher, theologian, and political writer. A late Scholastic thinker, he is regarded as the founder of a form of nominalism, the school of thought that denies that universals have any reality apart from the individual things signified by the universal or general term. He is also remembered as the originator of the medieval rule of logical economy known as Ockham's razor. He was excommunicated by Pope John XXII for his defense of the Franciscan notion of poverty and the rights of the empire against the papacy

Hyphenation

Ock·ham