Occam's razor

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William of Occam
William of Occam

Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle. It says that the simplest explanation is usually the best one. It is attributed to William of Ockham, who was a logician and Franciscan friar in the 14th century.


The principle says that if there are several reasons for something happening, that reason which makes the fewest assumptions is most likely the best one. In Latin this is often called lex parsimoniae, the law of succinctness:

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

this can be translated to:

entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity