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Single Idea 6806

[filed under theme 2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 6. Ockham's Razor ]

Full Idea

Do not multiply entities beyond necessity.

Clarification

'entities' are things that exist (so, 'don't be fanciful; keep it simple')

Gist of Idea

Do not multiply entities beyond necessity

Source

William of Ockham (works [1335])

A Reaction

This is the classic statement of Ockham's Razor, though it is not found in his printed works. It appears to be mainly aimed at Plato's Theory of Forms. It is taken to refer to types of entities, not numbers. One seraph is as bad as a hundred.

Related Idea

Idea 16676 Why use more things when fewer will do? [William of Ockham]

The 36 ideas from William of Ockham

9089 Knowledge is a quality existing subjectively in the soul [William of Ockham]
9091 Sometimes 'knowledge' just concerns the conclusion, sometimes the whole demonstration [William of Ockham]
9090 Knowledge is certain cognition of something that is true [William of Ockham]
16792 If parts change, the whole changes [William of Ockham]
9104 A universal is the result of abstraction, which is only a kind of mental picturing [William of Ockham]
9103 A universal is not a real feature of objects, but only a thought-object in the mind [William of Ockham]
16654 Our words and concepts don't always correspond to what is out there [William of Ockham]
9101 Abstractive cognition knows universals abstracted from many singulars [William of Ockham]
9100 Our intellect only assents to what we believe to be true [William of Ockham]
9111 God is not wise, but more-than-wise; God is not good, but more-than-good [William of Ockham]
9112 We could never form a concept of God's wisdom if we couldn't abstract it from creatures [William of Ockham]
9114 There are no secure foundations to prove the separate existence of mind, in reason or experience [William of Ockham]
9102 If an animal approached from a distance, we might abstract 'animal' from one instance [William of Ockham]
9115 To love God means to love whatever God wills to be loved [William of Ockham]
16757 Hot water naturally cools down, which is due to the substantial form of the water [William of Ockham]
16779 Cut wood doesn't make a new substance, but seems to make separate subjects [William of Ockham]
18529 Relations are expressed either as absolute facts, or by a relational concept [William of Ockham]
16599 Ockham says matter must be extended, so we don't need Quantity [William of Ockham, by Pasnau]
16608 Ockham was an anti-realist about the categories [William of Ockham, by Pasnau]
16681 Matter gets its quantity from condensation and rarefaction, which is just local motion [William of Ockham]
15388 Universals are single things, and only universal in what they signify [William of Ockham]
16300 Ockham had an early axiomatic account of truth [William of Ockham, by Halbach]
9105 Some concepts for propositions exist only in the mind, and in no language [William of Ockham]
9106 The word 'every' only signifies when added to a term such as 'man', referring to all men [William of Ockham]
9113 Just as unity is not a property of a single thing, so numbers are not properties of many things [William of Ockham]
9107 A proposition is true if its subject and predicate stand for the same thing [William of Ockham]
9110 The words 'thing' and 'to be' assert the same idea, as a noun and as a verb [William of Ockham]
9109 If essence and existence were two things, one could exist without the other, which is impossible [William of Ockham]
9108 From an impossibility anything follows [William of Ockham]
16675 Every extended material substance is composed of parts distant from one another [William of Ockham]
16676 Why use more things when fewer will do? [William of Ockham]
6806 Do not multiply entities beyond necessity [William of Ockham]
22132 Species and genera are individual concepts which naturally signify many individuals [William of Ockham]
16679 Even an angel must have some location [William of Ockham, by Pasnau]
8010 William of Ockham is the main spokesman for God's commands being the source of morality [William of Ockham]
19381 The past has ceased to exist, and the future does not yet exist, so time does not exist [William of Ockham]