Occam's razorn.

1852 W. Hamilton Discuss. Philos. & Lit. 590 We are, therefore, entitled to apply ‘Occam's razor’ to this theory of causality.

1888 Mind 13 530 Newton's Rules of Philosophising grew out of his study the theory of gravitation, the only extraneous help being Ockham's razor.

1901 T. C. Allbutt Sci. & Medieval Thought 57 Now this scientific economy, perhaps first formulated, or effectively used, by William Ockham, in the phrase ‘entia non sunt multiplicanda’—known as ‘Ockham's rasor’—is what is called now-a-days ‘materialism’.

1914 B. Russell Our Knowl. of External World (1926) iv. 112 The..extrusion of permanent things affords an example of the maxim which inspires all scientific philosophizing, namely ‘Occam's razor’: Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity. In other words, in dealing with any subject-matter, find out what entities are undeniably involved, and state everything in terms of these entities.

1928 Biometrika 20A 282 We feel that it is a case for ‘Occam's Razor’, where the simpler hypothesis should be adopted.

1960 A. Huxley Let. 17 July (1969) 894 Perhaps Ockham's razor isn't a valid scientific principle. Perhaps entities sometimes ought to be multiplied beyond the point of the simplest possible explanation.

1977 M. Goulder in J. Hick Myth of God Incarnate iii. 60 Natural explanations, where they are at all plausible, are surely to be preferred on the basis of Occam's razor.

1991 Mind 100 143 There is a direct appeal to Occam's Razor: we should not acknowledge two or more irreducibly different types of entity if we can get by with fewer.