Talk:Occam's razor

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Occam's razor article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: 365 days

Philosophy: Logic / Science / Medieval High‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy articles

High

This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Associated task forces:
/
	Logic
	Philosophy of science
	Medieval philosophy

Skepticism Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skepticism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science, pseudoscience, pseudohistory and skepticism related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkepticismWikipedia:WikiProject SkepticismTemplate:WikiProject SkepticismSkepticism articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

"Cities should use 'Razor'". L.A. Daily News. April 12, 2004.

Nomenclature

I have always seen it spelled Ockham's Razor locally, and Occams Razor online. Given it is credited to Ockham, why is the nomenclature in this article Occam?

Could there be a section added for why this variation exists?

I looked into it a bit, Stanford for example use Ockham, but Occam is more prevalent. I assume it has to do with Latin/English translation, but I cannot find any concrete sources to add this to the article. Emmertex (talk) 10:47, 3 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think that this arises from a combination of several factors. Although Latin has a letter 'K', the letter 'C' is more often used for the same sound and therefore his Latin name has usually been Occam. And Occam derives from the village now known as Ockham, but the spelling of that place would itself have been variable in centuries past, as with many other places. In the Domesday Book of the late 11th century, the village was called 'Bocheham' and only later became 'Ockham'. The aim shouldn't be to decide which is 'right' but what is the most common usage now, and if 'Occam's razor' is that, the article should reflect it. Sbishop (talk) 11:10, 3 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Length

This article is far longer than is necessary for an adequate explanation of the topic. It fails to be a model of the very principle it describes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by D wigglesworth (talk • contribs) 19:09, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]