On Feb 17, 2009, at 9:45 PM, Biju Chacko wrote:
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 6:08 PM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com>
wrote:
Possible (also plausible), and I am as much a fan of Hanlon and
Ockham
as you are. But I also believe that Murphy trumps the abovementioned
gentry, hence my alarm.
To nit-pick: I believe the most common spelling is "Occam".
It depends. William of Ockham came from a place called,
unsurprisingly, "Ockham", a town that still exists in England by that
very name. While it is indeed common to spell it "Occam" when
referring to the philosophical concept of Occam's Razor, I believe
that spelling is a Latinate form and a reference to the man (as above,
though indirectly) would refer to his town of origin per custom. It
reads odd when you consider that "Occam" refers to a place rather than
a person.
Because the town William was from was called Ockham and is still
called Ockham, the pedant in me would argue that the man was William
of Ockham even if he is associated with "Occam's Razor". Or Epicurus'
Razor or Kolmogorov's Razor depending on how far backward or forward
in time you want to attribute the formulation of that concept.
Cheers,
J. Andrew Rogers
