10 Philosophical Razors to Simplify Your Life
by Chris Meyer;
1. Sagan's Standard
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
2. Grice's Razor
"Address what someone meant to say instead of the literal meaning of the words."
3. Hume's Guillotine
"What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is."
4. Alder's Razor
"If it cannot be settled by observation or experiment, it's not worth debating at all."
5. Feynman's Razor
"If you can't explain something simply, then you don't really understand it."
6. Hitchen's Razor
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."
7. Occam's Razor
"Simpler explanations are more likely to be correct; avoid unnecessary or improbable assumptions."
8. Hanlon's Razor
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
9. Riker's Razor
"If someone's incompetence is too staggering to be true, they're most likely faking it and you should find out why."
10. Jung's Razor
"If you cannot understand why someone did something, look at the consequences — and infer the motivation."
Philosophy grapples with the fundamental nature of knowledge and existence. Philosophical razors try to make life easier through radical simplification by shaving off unlikely explanations and possibilities.
Charley
