THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY September 26, 2002
Ockham's razor ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: VeriSign - The Value of Trust Secure all your Web servers now - with a proven 5-part strategy. The FREE Server Security Guide shows you how to deploy the latest encryption and authentication techniques, deliver transparent protection with the strongest security without disrupting users, and more. Get your FREE Guide now: http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,6035,00.htm?FreeGuide ______________ TODAY'S WORD: Ockham's razor See our definition with hyperlinks at http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212684,00.html Ockham's razor (also spelled Occam's razor, pronounced AHK-uhmz RAY-zuhr) is the idea that, in trying to understand something, getting unnecessary information out of the way is the fastest way to the truth or to the best explanation. William of Ockham (1285-1349), English theologian and philosopher, spent his life developing a philosophy that reconciled religious belief with demonstratable, generally experienced truth, mainly by separating the two. Where earlier philosophers attempted to justify God's existence with rational proof, Ockham declared religious belief to be incapable of such proof and considered it to be a matter of faith. He rejected the notions preserved from Classical times of the independent existence of qualities such as truth, hardness, and durability and said these ideas had value only as descriptions of particular objects and were really characteristics of human cognition. Ockham was noted for his insistence on paying close attention to language as a tool for thinking and on observation as a tool for testing reality. His thinking and writing is considered to have laid the groundwork for modern scientific inquiry. Ockham's insistence on the use of parsimony (we might call it minimalism) in thought resulted in some later writer's invention of the term, Ockham's razor. Among his statements (translated from his Latin) are: "Plurality is not to be assumed without necessity" and "What can be done with fewer [assumptions] is done in vain with more." One consequence of this methodology is the idea that the simplest or most obvious explanation of several competing ones is the one that should be preferred until it is proven wrong. ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: Principia Cybernetica Web provides more about "Occam's Razor." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/OCCAMRAZ.html A site we like for the history of philosophy in general is The Timeline of Western Philosophy. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/westtime.htm ______________________ THIS DAY IN IT HISTORY | September 26, 1996 International Business Exchange (IBEX), an online service designed to facilitate business-to-business purchasing, was created by AT&T, Dun and Bradstreet, General Electric, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci214411,00.html ______________________ CROSSWORD PUZZLE | #3 Improve your flexible thinking skills. Print out the puzzle and keep it nearby to work on throughout your day! http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci852146,00.html ______________________ QUIZ #8 | Database basics How much do you know about how a database works? Take our quiz and find out! http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid13_gci750695,00.html ______________________ REAL-LIFE CHALLENGE #15 | Networking a small business Company Epsilon wants to connect their machine shops to the main office. Will they need outside help, or is networking the buildings something they can do on their own? http://whatis.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?[EMAIL PROTECTED]@.1dcfae0e/137!viewtype=threadDate&skip=&expand= ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] replicator http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci852311,00.html [2] Wiegand http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci852292,00.html [3] liquid http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci851574,00.html [4] relative identifier http://searchwindowsmanageability.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid33_gci850565,00.html [5] mobility agent http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci850702,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Assistant Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Published by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. 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