Justifying Ockham's razor (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, May 04, 2016, 12:30 (3124 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: “This principle says that a theory that postulates fewer entities, processes or causes is better than a theory that postulates more, so long as the simpler theory is compatible with what we observe. But what does ‘better' mean?”
-Good question, not to mention the fact that different people seem to observe the same thing differently. While sitting steadfastly on my fence, I have to say that with regard to the god versus godless theories, the godless seems to me to be by far the simpler. Some (for me) unbelievable luck, and the rest follows naturally with no complications. Whereas the complications are endless with a (for me) unbelievable, unknown, unknowable, sourceless mind that creates zillions of solar systems and organisms in unknown ways for unknown reasons, spawning countless more theories about itself, leading to religions with their own countless complications and ramifications.…But Ockham himself would probably have disagreed, and in this particular case, I am certainly not going to say that simpler is ‘better', whatever that means.