Occam’s razor

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

“History

William of Ockham, a Franciscan friar who studied logic in the 14th century, first made this principle well known.^[1] In Latin it is sometimes called lex parsimoniae, or “the law of briefness”. William of Ockham supposedly (see below) wrote it in Latin as:

• Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.^[1]

This translates roughly as:

• More things should not be used than are necessary.

This means that if there are several possible ways that something might have happened, the way that uses the fewest guesses is probably the right one. However, Occam’s razor only applies when the simple explanation and complex explanation both work equally well. If a more complex explanation does a better job than a simpler one, then you should use the complex one.

Occam’s razor is a principle, not an actual razor: the word ‘razor’ is a metaphor. Occam’s razor gets rid of unnecessary explanations just like a razor shaves off extra hair.^[2] This description is a violation of Occam’s razor.”