Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 21:28:08 +0200 (SAT) From: Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com> To: jlemon@americantv.com (Jonathan Lemon) Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: chickenbean.com Message-ID: <199810261928.VAA00337@ceia.nordier.com> In-Reply-To: <19981026113211.50449@right.PCS> from Jonathan Lemon at "Oct 26, 98 11:32:11 am"
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Jonathan Lemon wrote: > On Oct 10, 1998 at 09:18:35AM -0800, Jason C. Wells wrote: > > On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Jasper O'Malley wrote: > > > > >On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Jason C. Wells wrote: > > > > > >> Assume error and lack of skill until you can prove malice. > > > > > >Hanlon's Razor: > > > > > > Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained > > > by stupidity. > > > > Yes yes. I do believe that was it. > > Which is probably just an extension of Occam's Razor: > > Prefer the simplest hypothesis that fits the data. > > (assuming that stupidity is a simpler explanation than malice). What Occam actually ever said was fairly dull: "Plurality is never to be posited without need". This is usually expressed as "Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity" (or in some formal logic "Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem") which doesn't sound much better. > > BTW, what is it with all these razors? Some preoccupation with the macabre? A reminder that logic or even thinking can be a dangerous business? The most famous logician of the Middle Ages, Abelard (~200 years before Occam), was deprived of some *erhm* rather useful parts of his anatomy for marrying a pupil of his, Heloise. Occam himself was excommunicated, and died of the Black Death. -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199810261928.VAA00337>