[R] Occams Razor Was: lm -- significance of x ...

[Peter Dalgaard BSA]

Peter Dalgaard BSA <p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk> writes:

> I think Occam/Ockham himself wrote in Latin. By my failing memory, the
> quote is 
> 
> "Entia non runt multiplicanda praeter necessitam"
> 
> give or take a couple of incorrect inflexions. I.e. "Entities should
> not multiply unless necessary" -- do not invent more elaborate
> explanations than what is necessary to explain the facts.

A little web search gave the following at
http://www2.jonction.net/~ziem/occam.html 

"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate" 
"Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora" 
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem" 

The principle states that "Entities should not be multiplied
unnecessarily." Sometimes it is quoted in one of its original Latin
forms to give it an air of authenticity.


-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._