![]() The phrase associated with Occam relating to parsimony seemed to be ‘Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate’ (and variants thereof): ‘Entities should not be posited without necessity’. ![]() He also searched histories of medieval philosophy and found nothing. Thorburn discovered many places the phrase was not found: the works of Occam, Scotus, or Aquinas in “the two most popular textbooks of the Middle Ages, the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Bishop of Paris, +1164), and the Summulae Logicales of Petrus Hispanus” or in Abelard, Hales, Albert, Bonaventura, and Durand. That research suggested the origin lay with an Irish scholastic, John Punch. The paper is available from Mind 27 (1918), 345-353 and on wikisource. ![]() The other question is, who did originally say it? In 1918, William Thorburn published the result of his investigations into this question in Mind. The question, of course, is which entities are needed and which are not. Moreover, as usually stated, it is a sentiment that virtually all philosophers, medieval or otherwise, would accept no one wants a needlessly bloated ontology. As the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy reports:Īlthough the sentiment is certainly Ockham’s, that particular formulation is nowhere to be found in his texts. Occam’s (or Ockham’s) Razor is a form of the principle of parsimony (broadly, that theories should be as simple as possible but not simpler.) It states: ‘Entities should not be multiplied without necessity.’ (In Latin, Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.) However it seems that William of Occam never said it. (Original work published 1894).The back label on a bottle of “Occam’s Razor” wine Morgan (Ed.), Introduction to comparative psychology. Conwy Lloyd Morgan, mental evolution, and Introduction to comparative psychology. American Journal of Psychology, 120, 477–495. Recurring errors among recent history of psychology textbooks. A PDF of this unpublished manuscript may be requested from the author by email: R. Department of Psychology records, 1932–2012, University of Georgia Archives, Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Box 6A, Folder 11), University of Georgia Libraries, Athens. Lloyd Morgan’s canon: A history of its misrepresentation. Controversial issues in psychology: The role of emergent processes, held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Louisville. Haraway (Eds.), Comparative psychology: A handbook (pp. Investigating cognitive abilities in animals: Unrealized potential. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 477–481. Clever animals and killjoy explanations in comparative psychology. An introduction to comparative psychology. Edwards (Ed.), The encyclopedia of philosophy: volume 8 (pp. On a distinction between intervening variables and hypothetical constructions. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 18, 179–201. The modern role of Morgan’s canon in comparative psychology. Discussions on philosophy and literature. Epstein (Eds.), Progress in psychobiology and physiological psychology (Vol. The subdivisions of neocortex: A proposal to revise the traditional view of sensory, motor, and association cortex. Stroudsburg: Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.ĭiamond, I. Comparative psychology in the twentieth century. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 29, 113–122.ĭewsbury, D. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.Ĭostall, A. ![]() The myth of simplicity: Problems of scientific philosophy.
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