2 More recently, the principle has spawned a number of nominal variations including the ‘principle of simplicity’ and the ‘KISS principle’ (Keep It Simple, Stupid). However, Ockham's razor offers us a single diagnosis that fully accounts for this single presentation and guides us to a diagnosis of meningitis - the explanation that requires the fewest number of assumptions.įor centuries, Ockham's razor has proved to be an effective tool for weeding out unfavourable hypotheses and scientists use it every day even when they do not cite it explicitly. Imagine a patient presents to casualty complaining of headache, neck stiffness, fever, and confusion - it is of course perfectly possible that he simultaneously developed a subarachnoid haemorrhage, torticollis, and hepatic encephalopathy. The principle, Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate, has over the years been interpreted in a number of ways but is perhaps best translated as ‘Plurality ought never be posed without necessity’- that is, the simplest and most unifying explanation for any given problem is the one most likely to be correct the idea being that other, less satisfactory, explanations are ‘shaven off’ in the process. ![]() 1 William of Ockham, its creator, was a Franciscan monk in the early 14th century who studied Theology at the Universities of Oxford and Paris. ![]() ![]() How should the physician react to these challenges in order to correctly diagnose and optimally treat the patient? This article began by stating the principle of parsimony, better known as ‘ Ockham's razor’, (also spelt ‘Occam’).
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