Occam’s Razor and 3 Other Razors (With Examples!)

ListPeople

Aug 18

Philosophical razors are principles or rules of thumb that can be applied in situations to help solve a problem or question. They’re called razors because they’re meant to ‘shave off’ unlikely explanations. The ideas behind these razors existed long before they ever were named but the names below helped popularize them in recent times.

Razors weren’t even a thing before Gillette… right?

1. Hitchens’s Razor

“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.”

Hitchens’s Razor was first introduced by writer Christopher Hitchens in his 2007 book, ‘God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.’ I think we all know where he stands on God and religion.

The razor itself is pretty self-explanatory, if someone makes an accusation there needs to be proof, or else there’s no point in discussing it. This razor is akin to the burden of proof argument that states it’s the responsibility of the person making a claim/accusation to supply the proof of it.

Example:

Say you’re walking down the street and someone randomly accuses you of having just robbed a bank. When you ask for evidence they say they don’t have any, they didn’t see you do it, they don’t see you running out of the bank, and they have no witnesses saying it was you. Based on Hitchens’s razor, since they have no evidence you can disregard their claim.

2. Occam’s Razor

“The correct explanation is usually the one made with the least assumptions”

This razor is named after William of Ockham, an English philosopher, and theologian living between 1287 and 1347. Despite not being the first one to use this principle, it’s attributed to him due to some of his writings where he states, “Plurality must never be posited without necessity.” It took a long time for someone to name it ‘Occam’s Razor’ because no one knew what the hell he was saying, who talks like that?

Often you’ll hear that Occam’s razor means the simplest explanation is usually the right one but that’s a bit too simplistic. A better way to define Occam’s razor is that the right explanation is usually the one made with the least assumptions.

As he says, ‘plurality must never be posited without necessity’’ meaning you should never assume multiple things are coincidentally happening unless you absolutely have to.

Example:

You’re at home, alone, and the door to the next room opens on its own. Multiple different scenarios might be running through your head; is it a ghost, monster, somebody I angered years ago coming to get revenge?

But if you apply Occam’s razor, you remember that there’s a window open in the next room. The scenario with the least assumptions is the window is open, the wind comes in and pushes the door open. Now unless you have a centuries-old generational vendetta against a family of vampires that are hunting you, Occam’s razor helps you realize it was just the wind.

3. Hanlon’s Razor

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

Hanlon’s razor first appeared in a joke book from 1980 entitled, ‘Murphy’s Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong!’ by Arthur Bloch. The quote, written by Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is basically advising you to assume someone is stupid rather than think they are out to get you.

In a nicer explanation, it advises you to think differently if someone appears to act maliciously towards you or does something that results in a negative consequence for you. That person likely didn’t do anything on purpose and their actions were caused by negligence or ignorance.

Look at the other options without a “this person is out to get me” mentality and oftentimes you’ll find the person maybe wasn’t thinking, made a mistake, or, as Hanlon puts it, they’re stupid.

Example:

Say you’re planning a surprise birthday party for your child, you’ve purchased the birthday supplies, ordered a custom-made cake, and you even hired a pretty in-demand clown that only comes around to your area every few years (I don’t know maybe they’re a world traveling famous clown, I’m making these examples up as I go)

The day before the party your parents show up and surprise the kid with tickets to Disneyland. Some people might think the parents did it on purpose but, taking Hanlon’s razor into account, you talk to them and find out it was a last-minute thing, they just forgot to tell you about.

And, you also forgot to tell them about the surprise party because you were too busy planning. So no one did anything wrong on purpose or to spite the other, it was just ignorance. Plus now there’s a free family trip to Disneyland because of course you’re going to cancel the party for Disneyland.

Someone’s gotta tell the clown though.

Hmm… maybe it was a good thing the party was canceled

4. Adler’s Razor / Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword

This razor is awesomely known as Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword. It states “we should not dispute propositions unless they can be shown by precise logic and/or mathematics to have observable consequences.” which is just an annoying way of saying “if we can’t test it, we shouldn’t discuss it.”

“Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?”

The razor was created by mathematician Mike Adler in a 2004 article in Philosophy Now. He wrote that he chose the name because Newton’s Laser Sword “is much sharper and more dangerous than Occam’s Razor.”

Something you should know about Mike Adler is that he’s not a fan of philosophers who are, as he puts it, “... trying to lure you into a word game which has no prospect of leading anywhere.” Here he is referencing the age-old Irresistible force paradox that asks ‘can an unstoppable force move an immovable object?’ Adler believes there’s no point in asking these kinds of questions if they can’t be tested.

For the Irresistible Force paradox, he finds the whole premise of the question to be flawed. In order for the question to be asked you have to have an immovable object, but to call the object immovable you have to have proved it first with all forces. If you have used all the forces in the universe to prove it’s an immovable object, well then you don’t have an unstoppable force to test the question.

In this case, a razor was too delicate to handle the request and Adler jokingly claimed only a ‘Flaming Laser Sword’ could rid us of these topics. So it’s pretty final and I think telling philosophers to shut the hell up.

To wrap this up, razors should be used as pure guidelines. They exist to help you attain an answer but not to directly answer questions for you. They help you take a step back and think logically when you have a question or you’re in a debate. Without them, you might end up in an argument and then you need to be real careful you don’t fall into some logical fallacies.