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Occam's Razor: The Principle of Parsimony in Science, Decision Making, and Problem Solving, Summaries of Medicine

Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing and Health SciencesMedicine

Occam's Razor is a philosophical principle attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar. The principle suggests that the simplest explanation is the best one, as it makes the fewest assumptions and introduces the fewest entities. This concept is often applied in various fields, including science, decision making, and problem-solving. In this document, we explore the origins and applications of Occam's Razor, as well as its relevance to decision trees and machine learning.

What you will learn

  • What are some other applications of Occam's Razor in various fields?
  • How is Occam's Razor applied in science?
  • What is Occam's Razor and where does it originate?
  • How does the ID3 strategy for selecting hypotheses relate to Occam's Razor?
  • What is the relevance of Occam's Razor to decision trees?

Typology: Summaries

2021/2022

Uploaded on 09/12/2022

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Occam’s Razor
Occam's razor (sometimes
spelled Ockham's razor) is a
principle attributed to the 14th-
century English logician and
Franciscan friar William of
Ockham.
The principle states that the
explanation of any
phenomenon should make as
few assumptions as possible,
eliminating those that make no
difference in the observable
predictions of the explanatory
hypothesis or theory.
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pf5
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Partial preview of the text

Download Occam's Razor: The Principle of Parsimony in Science, Decision Making, and Problem Solving and more Summaries Medicine in PDF only on Docsity!

Occam’s Razor

Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th- century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.

Occam’s Razor

This is often paraphrased as "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.

Prefer the simplest hypothesis that fits the data

Decision Trees as If-then-else rule conjunction disjunction •If (Outlook = Sunny AND humidity = Normal) then PlayTennis = Yes •If (Outlook = Overcast) then PlayTennis = Yes •If (Outlook = Rain AND Wind = Weak) then PlayTennis = Yes

Building Decision Tree

Outlook Temperature Humidity Wind Which attribute to select ????? Root node

Final Decision Tree

ID3 Strategy for Selecting Hypothesis

  • Selects trees that place the attributes with highest

information gain closest to the root.

  • Selects in favor of shorter trees over longer ones.

Later formulations

  • Isaac Newton:"We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. Therefore, to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.”
  • Bertrand Russell:"Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities."

Other Applications

  • Medicine
    • When discussing Occam's razor in contemporary medicine, doctors and
philosophers of medicine speak of diagnostic parsimony. Diagnostic
parsimony advocates that when diagnosing a given injury, ailment, illness, or
disease a doctor should strive to look for the fewest possible causes that
account for all the symptoms
  • Business management
    • Occam razor law in business management can be further evolved into simple
and complex rule: things become complex and very simple, simple things
become very complicated. The law of demand, we in dealing with the matter,
to grasp the essence of things mainly, grasp the mainstream, the fundamental
problems, especially the need to comply with nature, don't make things
artificially complicated, so that it can handle things.