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I don't think there's been a 999 questions in this thread yet.
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Ask a physicist anything. (2)
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I don't think there's been a 999 questions in this thread yet.
Maxwell511
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Occam's Razor is an important principle in forming an agenda of hypothesis testing. It is not a test for them.
Say you had an experiment that involves two variables that produce an outcome and you don't know if one variable or both of them have a causal relationship to the outcome. If you design a hypothesis and therefore an experiment on the assumption that the two variables are both causally related to the outcome than it is potentially possible that a false positive will occur. This happens all the time btw, people bring their sick child to the doctor and also pray, the child gets better therefore it must be prayer and medication that helped him.
Occam's Razor suggests an agenda. You hold one variable constant and test the outcome of changes in the other and vice verse. If both those tests fail to produce the outcome then you move onto the more complicated hypothesis.
You never say, with lack of experimental evidence, it is more likely that the single variable idea is more likely than the double variable hypothesis.
Occam's Razor is fine for its function within science but as a positive argument without supporting evidence it is really just a load of circular reasoning. It boils down to "I assume Occam's Razor is more likely to produce the correct hypothesis therefore the hypothesis that I use Occam's Razor to propose is more likely to be correct".
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This thread was split automatically after 1000 replies and this thread has been automatically closed.
The new thread automatically created is here: "Ask a physicist anything. (3)"
The new thread automatically created is here: "Ask a physicist anything. (3)"
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