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nWhynwould a friar and theologian have to flee for his liberty—and maybeneven his life—from the Pope?
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nWell,nit may not surprise you a bit. Many people have argued and foughtnover religious ideas—is THIS the right way? or is THAT?—andnsometimes the Powers That Be have had people who disagreed with themnarrested or even executed. In this case several Franciscans disagreed with ideas being taught by Pope John XXII, but the Pope was the one with the power. So the Franciscans,nincluding English friar William of Ockham, stole away in the dark of night, and rannoff to live in the court of another who disagreed with the Pope: HolynRoman Emperor Louis IV.
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nNow,nhere’s a question:
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nYounprobably know that the Vatican, where the Pope heads the CatholicnChurch, is in Rome. Wouldn’t you also think that the Holy RomannEmperor would ALSO be in Rome? Just how far did Ockham and the othernFranciscans have to flee, going from the Pope’s place to thenEmperor’s court?
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nItnturns out that, during this turbulent time of the Middle Ages,nneither this particular Pope nor this particular Emperor lived in Rome.
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nYounsee, Louis IV—who had lived and ruled in Munich, in Bavaria (part of what is nownknown as Germany)—was in a constant state of feud with Pope JohnnXXII . John excommunicated Louis (which means kicked him out of thenCatholic Church), and Louis deposed John (which means kicked him outnof being the Pope). John didn’t accept the deposition, of course, andnmoved from Rome, Italy, to Avignon, France. (To this day we considernthat John XXII remained Pope at this time, and the guy that Louis installed asnPope, Nicholas V, is now called the Antipope.) Robert, King of Naples,nsent a fleet and an army to kick Louis out of Rome, and both Louis IVnand the Antipope fled—all the way back to Munich. n
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nSo,nwhen William of Ockham fled from the Pope of the Holy Roman CatholicnChurch to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, he traveled from Avignon, France,nto Munich, Bavaria (Germany). n
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nThenstory is much more complex than even that, but I don’t want to getninto any more of those messy details. Instead, I want to tell you whynwe know Ockham’s name:
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nBecausenof “Occam’s Razor.”
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n(AKAnOckham’s Razor.)
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nWe’rennot talking about the thing Ockham used to shave. Instead, we are talking about a philosophical principle. Ockhamnwrote many scholarly papers, and one logicalnprinciple that he used over and over in his papers is that thensimplest explanation is often best. n
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nAccordingnto Occam’s Razor, if there are several hypotheses about why thenuniverse is the way it is, all other things being equal, we shouldnselect the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions.
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nInnother words, if there are two competing theories that make exactlynthe same predictions, the simpler one is better.
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nThe principle isncalled a “razor” because, with it, one can shave awaynunnecessary assumptions.
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nHere’snan often-used example of Occam’s Razor:
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nIfnyou live in America and you hear hoofbeats—but you can’t see whatnmade the sounds—you should assume horses, not zebras. And certainlynnot unicorns!
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nHerenare some other examples:
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nIfnyou zipped a dollar bill into your jacket pocket and a few hoursnlater you discover a hole in your pocket, and no dollar, you shouldnassume that the money fell through the hole, not that someonenhypnotized you, unzipped your pocket, and stole thenmoney.
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- Did the wallet somehow disappear into another dimension?
- Was the person who bussed the table blind, and did she or he accidentally sweep up the wallet and throw it into the trash?
- Did, perhaps, a small flying saucer whisk into the restaurant, undetected,nand disintegrate your wallet with a carefully calibrated laser beamnthat left the bench unmarked?
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nOh, boy, without Occam’s Razor, wencould come up with soooo many different scenarios of what happened tonthat wallet and money! n
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nButnwe really don’t need to spin a hundred unlikely explanations whennthere is a mundane-but-likely explanation that fits the evidence.
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nImportantnNote:
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nOccam’snRazor is just a guideline for our thinking. It can prove nothing!nCareful observation, measurement, experiment, replication, modeling,nmathematical calculation—all are more important to figuring outnwhat’s what, and why, then just thinking up “the simplestnsolution.” n
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nFornexample, a homicide detective should be alert to the possibility that thensimple solution “the butler did it,” even when backed up with anpiece or two of circumstantial evidence and an eyewitness report,nmight not be correct. A shrewd detective would realize that theneyewitness who just gained a million dollars from a death might havenlied about what he or she saw, and maybe even planted a few “clues” to framenthe butler he or she hopes to pin the murder on.
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nIn this murder case, we shouldn’t pounce on the easy answer as necessarily correct, but we also shouldn’t insist that the most likely person isnsomehow, perversely, the least likely (even if it seems that way innmurder mysteries). Instead, we should dig deeper, find morenevidence, follow the money, question the eyewitness several more times,ninterview everybody else…Work, work, work—and see if morenevidence points the finger more conclusively at the butler, ornelsewhere.
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nHow Stuff Works offers a longer exploration of Occam’s Razor.
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nPlannAhead…
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Checknout my Pinterest boards of Junenholidays, historicalnanniversaries in June,nand Junenbirthdays.
Checknout my Pinterest boards of Junenholidays, historicalnanniversaries in June,nand Junenbirthdays.
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nAlsonon this date:
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n“Catholics may not enter!” – Anniversary of an awful law
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nSorrynDay in Australia
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nAstronautnSally Ride’s birthday – Note: Inwrote this profile of Ride before she died in July, 2012. The nationnlost a hero and the world lost a vibrant contributor to scienceneducation. n
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