Editing 2541: Occam
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT CREATES ALL PAGES NOT MENTIONING ITSELF AND NO OTHER PAGES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
− | This comic | + | This comic conflates three philosophical topics: {{w|Occam's Razor}}, the {{w|Barber paradox|Barber Paradox}} and {{w|Murphy's Law}}. |
Occam's Razor is the principle that explanations should not postulate more entities than necessary. It is often phrased as "the simplest explanation is best". The word '{{w|Philosophical razor|razor}}' is intended to evoke the image of shaving off superfluous elements. | Occam's Razor is the principle that explanations should not postulate more entities than necessary. It is often phrased as "the simplest explanation is best". The word '{{w|Philosophical razor|razor}}' is intended to evoke the image of shaving off superfluous elements. | ||
− | The Barber Paradox postulates a town barber who shaves all those | + | The Barber Paradox postulates a town barber who shaves all those in the town who don’t shave themselves, and asks whether the barber shaves himself. The paradox is that if he does, then he shouldn’t; and if he doesn’t, then he should. It is an attempt at a concrete, real-world analogue of {{w|Russell's paradox|Russell's Paradox}} in set theory. (Had the phrasing been "all the <b>men</b> in the town who don’t shave themselves", as was previously incorrectly stated in this explanation, and if "men" is understood in the modern sense as opposed to the classical gender-neutral plural, and if its normative for women to grow beards, then the solution would be trivial: the barber is a woman.) |
− | Megan | + | Megan references Occam's Razor with the words "the simplest explanation" and the name Occam, and goes on to propose a solution to who shaves the barber. Strictly speaking, Occam (or {{w|Ockham}}) is a village in Surrey, where the friar and philosopher William of Occam lived, so it would be more correct to say that "William shaves the barber," but that wouldn't get her meaning across as clearly. (Her proposal is humorous and does not of course resolve the paradox, as the barber is still not shaving himself, so he should shave himself, so he shouldn't shave himself...) |
− | The title text invokes Murphy's Law: the expectation that "anything | + | The title text invokes Murphy's Law: the expectation that "anything can go wrong will go wrong." When you shave with a {{w|Straight razor|cut-throat razor}}, there's multiple things that could {{w|Sweeney Todd|go wrong}}, many of which would cause harm to the person being shaved. Alternatively, invoking Murphy's law makes the principle of Occam's Razor itself, or its use in the comic, "go wrong," possibly rendering the solution invalid. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
− | + | [One panel. Megan and Cueball walking.] | |
+ | |||
+ | Megan: The simplest explanation is that Occam shaves the barber. | ||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
− | |||
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Logic]] | [[Category:Logic]] | ||
− | [[Category:Philosophy]] | + | [[Category: Philosophy]] |