No. There is not such a device. These articles deal with the philosophical idea of “razors” and the proposed use of them to try and detangle the some of the issues that cause us so much stress in life.
The idea of the razor in philosophy can be described as a way of choosing between two theories or simplifying an idea or issue. Wikipedia describes it as “a device which allows one to shave away unlikely explanations for phenomenon.” One of the most famous is Ockham’s razor (also spelled Occam’s razor). “Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate.” Which in English means; Plurality should not be posited without necessity. William of Ockham was a English friar during the 14th century, he mentioned the principle of the razor extensively, this is one of the reasons he is attributed to it and has his name on it. In truth William did not invent the idea, the term Ockham’s razor first appeared centuries after his death in the 1852 writings of Sir William Hamilton. Predecessors such as Aristotle (384–322 BC) Maimonides (1138–1204), Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) and John Duns Scotus (1265–1308) mentioned the idea in their works concerning difficult theories. The most popular version was written not by him at all, but by John Ponce from Cork, Ireland in 1639.
In its simplest form the principle of Ockham’s razor says that the theories with the fewest new ideas are favorable. This is easily confused by some to mean; the ideas that are “easiest to wrap our minds around”. Occam's razor is not a restraint on the postulations of any kind of issue out there, or a recommendation of the simplest theory come what may "Ockham's razor does not say that the more simple a hypothesis, the better." (http://www.skepdic.com/occam.html) Using these ideas we can “shave” away the unnecessary elements of certain topics and dilemmas while leaving the crucial elements that will lead us to a happy conclusion in place. We don’t necessarily have to “solve” anything here; we just want to trim it down to something we can digest. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character, Sherlock Holmes, said "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." He shaved with Ockham’s razor and we we’ll attempt to do the same.
But be warned! The pursuit of “easy” or “comfortable” answers can lead a person down a path of spoon-fed quick fixes. Where everything, as long as it is tolerable and “doesn’t hurt anyone”, is quickly gobbled up so that we can sleep easy. “There are no easy answers, but there are some simple ones. They say the world has become too complex for simple answers… this is not true.” (Ronald Regan) Not caring is just as bad as caring too much about something. Balance, if and when it can be found is desirable above comfort and complacency. Just as one can shave away on one side of an issue, the razor can be used to cut away too much and then leaves us with not enough of the answer to come to a reasonable conclusion. For example if we are trying to figure out how Émile Levassor in 1895 was able to get from Paris to Bordeaux (over 780miles) in less than 50hours and with assume right-off-the-bat that it is impossible to go faster than 45 miles an hour (“If a human were to travel over 45 miles per hour, his heart stop and he would die. Voltaire 1777”) then our conclusions might become difficult. Also, it is almost too easy to make issues more complicated then they need to be(in our small philosophical discussion) I’m sure for everything we could shave away, a thousand “exceptions” could arise. To that I quote Albert Einstein, who was very familiar with the applications of razors. "Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Yes, some issues will never be made clear-cut, agreed across the board, and simple. “Issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.” (Barack Obama) but for sake of discussion…
In each posting we’ll try out a different razor and with a little shaving cream, we’ll apply it to several issues concerning our world today. If you have any topics that are getting a little shaggy and in need of a shave; email me, I’ll try to include it….
Very good dear, it will be quite interesting to hear what razors you'll use & what issues you'll apply them to. I think that once you get to writing about all the different ones you should make this another tab cause it kind of sets up the site for us.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of this idea of a razor but I'm anxious to learn more!! ^_^