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Ockham's razor, the principle of parsimony, states that simpler theories are better than theories that are more complex. It has a history dating back to Aristotle and it plays an important role in current physics, biology, and psychology. The razor also gets used outside of science - in everyday life and in philosophy. This book evaluates the principle and discusses its many applications. Fascinating examples from different domains provide a rich basis for contemplating the principle's promises and perils. It is obvious that simpler theories are beautiful and easy to understand; the hard problem is to figure out why the simplicity of a theory should be relevant to saying what the world is like. In this book, the ABCs of probability theory are succinctly developed and put to work to describe two 'parsimony paradigms' within which this problem can be solved.

Logic --- Ockham, of, William --- Reasoning --- Problem Solving --- Simplicity (Philosophy) --- Philosophy, Medieval --- Guilelmus de Occam, --- Simplicité (philosophie) --- Principe d'économie (philosophie) --- Résolution de problème --- Guillaume d'Ockham, --- Reasoning. --- Problem solving. --- Philosophy, Medieval. --- William, --- Simplicity (Philosophy). --- Résolution de problème. --- Guilelmus de Occam, - ca. 1285-1349 --- Medieval philosophy --- Scholasticism --- Philosophy --- Methodology --- Psychology --- Decision making --- Executive functions (Neuropsychology) --- Argumentation --- Ratiocination --- Reason --- Thought and thinking --- Judgment (Logic) --- Guglielmo, --- Guilelmus, --- Guilhelmus, --- Guillaume, --- Guillelmus, --- Guillermo, --- Occam, --- Occam, Guillaume d', --- Occam, William, --- Occamus, Guilielmus, --- Occhamus, Gulielmus, --- Ockam, Guilhelmus de, --- Ockham, William, --- Okkam, Uilʹi︠a︡m, --- Okkʻam, William, --- Wilhelm, --- William Okkʻam,

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Biology --- Philosophy of science --- Evolution --- Creationism --- Natural selection --- Religion and Science --- Philosophy --- Biologie --- Évolution (biologie) --- Évolutionnisme --- Créationnisme (théologie) --- Sélection naturelle --- Sociobiologie --- Evolution (Biology) --- Creationism. --- Philosophie --- Philosophy. --- Religious aspects --- Christianity. --- Évolutionnisme. --- Sélection naturelle. --- Sociobiologie. --- Philosophie. --- Evolution - Philosophy --- Natural selection - Philosophy --- Acqui 2006 --- Évolution (biologie) --- Évolutionnisme. --- Créationnisme (théologie) --- Sélection naturelle.

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Elliott Sober is one of the leading philosophers of science and is a former winner of the Lakatos Prize, the major award in the field. This new collection of essays will appeal to a readership that extends well beyond the frontiers of the philosophy of science. Sober shows how ideas in evolutionary biology bear in significant ways on traditional problems in philosophy of mind and language, epistemology, and metaphysics. Amongst the topics addressed are psychological egoism, solipsism, and the interpretation of belief and utterance, empiricism, Ockham's razor, causality, essentialism, and scientific laws. The collection will prove invaluable to a wide range of philosophers, primarily those working in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind, and epistemology.

Evolution. --- Biology --- Philosophy of mind. --- Ethics, Evolutionary. --- Knowledge, Theory of. --- Empiricism. --- Essentialism (Philosophy) --- Time. --- Philosophy. --- Essentialism (Philosophy). --- Empiricism --- Ethics, Evolutionary --- Evolution --- Knowledge, Theory of --- Philosophy of mind --- Time --- Ethics, Naturalistic --- Evolutionary ethics --- Naturalistic ethics --- Ethics --- Ethical relativism --- Essence (Philosophy) --- Philosophy --- Substance (Philosophy) --- Experience --- Rationalism --- Vitalism --- Hours (Time) --- Geodetic astronomy --- Nautical astronomy --- Horology --- Mind, Philosophy of --- Mind, Theory of --- Theory of mind --- Cognitive science --- Metaphysics --- Philosophical anthropology --- Epistemology --- Theory of knowledge --- Psychology --- Creation --- Emergence (Philosophy) --- Teleology --- Arts and Humanities

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How should the concept of evidence be understood? And how does the concept of evidence apply to the controversy about creationism as well as to work in evolutionary biology about natural selection and common ancestry? In this rich and wide-ranging book, Elliott Sober investigates general questions about probability and evidence and shows how the answers he develops to those questions apply to the specifics of evolutionary biology. Drawing on a set of fascinating examples, he analyzes whether claims about intelligent design are untestable; whether they are discredited by the fact that many adaptations are imperfect; how evidence bears on whether present species trace back to common ancestors; how hypotheses about natural selection can be tested, and many other issues. His book will interest all readers who want to understand philosophical questions about evidence and evolution, as they arise both in Darwin's work and in contemporary biological research.

Philosophy of nature --- Logic --- Evolution. Phylogeny --- Evolution (Biology) --- Natural selection --- Evidence --- Probabilities --- Philosophy --- Evidence. --- Philosophy. --- Probability --- Statistical inference --- Proof --- Combinations --- Mathematics --- Chance --- Least squares --- Mathematical statistics --- Risk --- Belief and doubt --- Faith --- Truth --- Arts and Humanities --- Evolution (Biology) - Philosophy --- Natural selection - Philosophy --- Probabilities - Philosophy

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Natural selection, mutation, and adaptation are well-known and central topics in Darwin's theory of evolution and in the 20th - and 21st -century theories which grew out of it, but many other important topics are used in evolutionary biology that raise interesting philosophical questions. In this book, Elliott Sober analyses a much larger range of topics, including fitness, altruism, common ancestry, chance, taxonomy, phylogenetic inference, operationalism, reductionism, conventionalism, null hypotheses and default reasoning, instrumentalism versus realism, hypothetico-deductivism, essentialism, falsifiability, the principle of parsimony, the principle of the common cause, causality, determinism versus indeterminism, sensitivity to initial conditions, and the knowability of the past. Sober's clear philosophical analyses of these key concepts, arguments, and methods of inference will be valuable for all readers who want to understand evolutionary biology in both its Darwinian and its contemporary forms.

Evolution (Biology) --- Genetics --- Natural selection --- Probabilities --- Philosophy.