Re: Occam

From: Russell Standish <r.standish.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:17:08 +1000

On Mon, Jul 24, 2006 at 11:42:35AM -0400, John M wrote:
>
> Russell,
>
> you mentioned the 'razor'man and I know you are a proven expert in
> Occamistic ideas. So I ask for your opinion:
>
> Is Occam's razor-thing not a perfect action of increasing the reductionist
> limitations of a problem?
> In 'cutting off' the 'nonessential' (pardon me for my layish expressions)
> and copncentrate on the 'essence' we DO narrow the model of our observation
> even further than it was. Indeed a 'limited model' is a razor-cut topically
> partialized view of an otherwise unlimited interconnection which would be
> beyond our present capabilities to comprehend.
> Model-view (=the sciences, our common sense, our ways of thinking etc.) is
> the useful tool for the evolving human views and knowledege base, however
> with the caveat that it cuts off connections - MAYBE of importance. That may
> lead to the paradoxes and misconceptions, when we consider the model 'as a
> total' and draw conclulsions from in-model observation onto the totality.
>
> Did 'Occam' not just increased the cut-off? "Razoring" does facilitate a
> conclusion on the topic in question, but there may be relations of
> importance we miss.
>
> In my 'wholistic' agnosticism:
>
> John M
>

I don't think Occam's razor has anything to do with reductionism.

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Received on Tue Jul 25 2006 - 07:26:35 PDT