#Ockham's razor

[philosophybitmaps]

[elrohirtheneurodivergent]

To all music theorists, music teachers and the likes I ask this question:

Would it kill you to make use of Ockham's razor once in your fucking life and let a melody be a melody for melody's sake?!

[geopolicraticus]

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Copernicus and Our Place in History

Monday 19 February 2024 is the 551st anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 to 24 May 1543), who was born in Torun, now part of Poland, on this date in 1473.

Copernicus stands virtually alone at the origin of the Scientific Revolution, and we find in his work many themes that would only slowly unfold over the coming centuries as the scientific method was further formalized. In this episode I discuss some of the philosophical aspects of the origins and development of the scientific method, and how these are the basis of a naturalistic conception of time and history, which we could call Copernican history.     

Quora:             https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:          https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:              https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:    http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Podcast:         https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/Copernicus-and-Our-Place-in-History-e2fvj3p  

[thebardostate]

That's something I studied as an astrophysics undergraduate, but I'm more familiar with it as the Brachistocrone Problem (the Feynman neologism hadn't become into common usage yet.)

Classically, it means that an object will follow a trajectory that minimizes its path through phase space. More familiarly, it means an object will take the path of least resistance (action.)

I can see how you're looking at it here, that's an interesting idea to equate simplicity with action. That's food for thought. But whereas the physics of trajectories can be calculated very precisely (New Horizons' encounter with the Pluto system is Exhibit A), simplicity is in the eye of the beholder. It is a common misconception that the Copernician system surpassed the Ptolemaic system because it was simpler. Not so; until Kepler came along with his elliptical orbits and laws of planetary motion (while he was looking for something else, as it happened), the Ptolemaic system made better predictions because Copernicus envisaged that planets orbited the Sun in perfectly circular orbits.

Thus, "simplicity" is too thin a reed to hold any real force in physics except as a tacked-on value judgment offered for the purpose of saving a cherished framework *cough dark energy cough*

Now complexity, that's a different story.

“It is pointless to do with more what can be done with fewer.”

— William of Ockham, Summa Totius Logicae

[borbersk]

My collection of razors is as follows:

Hanlan: never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity

Ockham: the most likely solution is most often the correct one

Hank: for anything that can be explained by socio-economic status in society, it's probably that rather than the thing you're measuring

Mehrune: stabstabstabstabstabcutstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabcutstabstabstabstabcutstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabcutstabstabstabcut

[purplecladmerchant]

And how to forget their rouge Morg Ockham.

[collapseofindustrialcivilization]

Upon a Razor’s Edge

The world’s a knot of tangled schemes, A labyrinth built from broken dreams. Ockham’s razor, sharp and bright, Slices through illusion’s blight. In shadowed halls, the Church amassed A maze of rules that could not last. The plague unmasked what words obscure: When hunger reigns, what prayers endure? Now lithium fields burn cobalt skies, While children choke on profit’s lies. “Progress” masks the…

[skybristle]

🫵

all the time i wish you had a discord so that we could yap at eachother about these losers

ALSO IM HONORED YOU TALK ABT MY STUPIDS TO YOUR FRIENDS ........ <3 <3 <3 <3 hope they're comfy in your brain. Not paying rent as usual

[philosophybits]

Armed with the distinction between facts and values, or brandishing Ockham's razor like a club, the spokesperson for the Modern Scientific World View declares that there cannot be ethical knowledge, that we can explain the moral phenomena without positing the existence of moral entities or facts, or that intrinsically normative entities are just too queer to exist. And the moral philosopher, frantic with the sense of impending loss, rushes to the defence of ethical knowledge. And almost nobody pauses to ask whether knowledge of ethical objects, or indeed any sort of knowledge at all, is really what we want here in the first place.

Christine M. Korsgaard, The Sources of Normativity

[luxe-pauvre]

The lesson here is that the simplest explanation is not necessarily the correct one, and the correct one is often not as simple as it first appears. Ockham's razor, as applied in science, does not mean that a new theory should replace a previous one just because it is simpler or because it has fewer assumptions. I prefer a different interpretation of Ockham's razor: that a better theory is one that is more useful, because it makes more-accurate predictions about the world. Simplicity is not always what we should strive for. In everyday life too, things are often not as simple as we would like them to be. To paraphrase Einstein, we should try to make things as simple as possible, but no simpler. Nevertheless, the idea that simpler is better seems to have spread, and we can see a trend towards simplistic arguments, particularly in relation to ethical or political issues, which ignore all subtlety and complexity, reducing everything to the lowest common denominator, distilling the issues into memes and tweets in which all nuance is lost.

Jim Al-Khalili, The Joy of Science

[purplecladmerchant]

Those are our adventuring OCs and I get to try new fun brushes on a draw if I want!

[change-maiden]

its all over the place actually but. for the most part. DING DING DING!!!

if you guys had to guess what sort of music do u think i would like

[collapseofindustrialcivilization]

William of Ockham and the Collapse of Complexity: A Razor's Edge for the End Times

The Man Who Cut Through the Noise In the 14th century, a Franciscan friar named William of Ockham wielded an intellectual tool so sharp it still slices through modern delusions: Ockham’s Razor. His principle—“Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity”—was a rebellion against medieval scholasticism’s tangled webs of abstraction. As the Church fractured under rival popes—each justifying…

[hivemuthur]

helloooOOooO how are you, lovely human?

First things first, i want to congratulate you for D&M. The way you wrapped it was both beautiful and emotional. Great job! I’ve been following your work for such a long time and every time i get to read one of your works i got blown away by how good they are.

Second thing is i was wondering, can you spoil us a little? i mean, can you tell us what are you currently working on content wise (prompts, requests)? which prompt(s)or request(s) are you the most excited writing about? Are they fun? angsty? dirty? cute? TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT.

I seriously can’t (i can and i will) wait for your next work!

Have a great day :)

*English is not my first language so please forgive my grammar mistakes! )’:

Hai lovely Anon, who I presume is also human, how are you?

Thank you very much for a lovely compliment! This fic made me realize that Ockham's razor actually works and sometimes most obvious things work best. I will also never pass on a good poetic metaphor. Also it's so nice to know you've been around from the beginning, thank you!

From things in progress, I have thrown myself into To Be Known and can't wait to share more of it with you guys.

From requests, ooof, there is so many. Very good mix of fun/sweet and smutty asks, but what I have queued up to write first is pantie sniffer because I can't help myself, beach day because I miss summer like it's my long lost lover and a fun little idea with Viktor and Reader exchanging notes in the library!

From other long fics I am currently researching Jazz AU. I am torn between setting it in modern AU and 1960s. I know I promised you priest!Viktor and dark ages AU - these ideas are not forgotten, they lie dormant waiting for inspiration :v

[wings-of-flying]

(spoilers for episode 114 and the black sea stuff in general)

who is the grandberry traitor?

the question isn't necessarily accurate as the traitor could be from a recruited pirate crew, like jaz's crew. however, the point still stands

grizzly has said no one's guessed exactly what will happen (whether that's about the plot in general or this specific thing isn't clear to me) which i'm going to assume means neither caspian, marshal john and rudith are the traitor

who does that leave? well, of the characters we know, not many. it could be lizzie, which would be interesting and she's got a possible motive plus doesn't approve of the black rose pirates. but...that doesn't seem likely. why would a spy recruit new pirates? why would a spy be so adamant in starting a war? there could be a reason, but we're working with ockham's razor here. the easiest solution is probably true

it could be a doppelganger of one of these known characters, which would be cool as fuck and difficult to guess, but i'm working on the assumption that whatever experiments are happening in the black sea's navy base aren't being used on a wide scale yet. this is an assumption that could be proven false, but it's what i'm going with for this. otherwise it's near impossible to guess who's the traitor. again, ockham's razor. easier solution

my evidence for this is that doppelgilly wasn't exactly perfect, yk. he didn't have to be, for his purpose of hunting down the intruders, but either they didn't have time to embue him with all gill's memories (possible, even likely) or they aren't able to do that yet (what i'm assuming is true)

so. lizzie probably isn't a doppelganger. no one who's well acquainted with either lizzie or the albatrio are likely doppelgangers. they wouldn't have the memories to prove themselves real

but what about someone who doesn't have any long standing connections (and therefore memories) with the albatrio (and lizzie)? they wouldn't need to be a perfect copy of themselves. they could just be a new person. no one would know

now this is where i'm gonna go a bit wild. because the previous paragraph makes sense to me. but there's also another solution. one which may be dumb but again. ockham's razor. it's simpler? maybe? (also this is an 'as i'm writing this' thought so bear with)

who do we know who's interacted very few times with the albatrio (and lizzie) and has recently become a pirate with a crew seemingly from nowhere? who's acted inconsistently with their previous iteration, but not enough to spark any questions? after all, it's possible grizzly just forgot that chip's marriage got annulled. it's possible that chip's wife also forgot this

that's right you fucks (/affectionate) i'm talking about amanda fucking rinn! my girl's been snatched and made into a doppelganger!

is this probably right? no. absolutely not. i'll shit myself if it is. but is it thought provoking? again no not really. but i'm putting it out there so that if it happens i can say I TOLD YOU SO! and if it doesn't i can play this off as a joke

anyway, it's probably a doppelganger. i mean, the concept of a traitor was released in the same episode gill got doppeled, so they're probably linked