Occam’s [Ockham’s] Razor

Abstract

Called after William of Ockham or Occam (c1285–1349), this is the principle usually stated as ‘entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity’ (entitia non multiplicanda sunt praeter necessitatem). These words are not Ockham’s own, although he does say ‘plurality is not to be assumed without necessity’ and ‘what can be done with less is done in vain with more’. The principle belongs with his radical empiricism, by which only direct experience of particular things and events can be evidence for claims to knowledge, and with his nominalism, by which logical analysis of language can be assured of removing the need for extra-linguistic universals. Nothing is to be assumed in explaining a fact, unless established by experience, by reasoning from experience or by the requirements of Faith. Whatever is real is particular.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman