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The provocative razor of William of Occam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2004

JEAN-CLAUDE PECKER
JEAN-CLAUDE PECKER
Affiliation:
Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France. E-mail: j.c.pecker@wanadoo.fr
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Abstract

A consideration of medieval astronomy and the views of the philosopher William of Occam leads to a consideration of the ambiguities in the application of the principle of Occam's razor as it applies to problems in science, including the constants applicable to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity and cosmology. The principle can both be used to eliminate unnecessary irrelevancies, but also to constrain the development of imaginative theories.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , May 2004 , pp. 185 - 190
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2004

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