Philosophical razors you need to know
● Occam’s razor: The simplest explanation is usually - but not always - the correct one
Sagan standard: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
● Hitchens razor: What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence
● Hume’s razor: Causes must be sufficiently able to produce the effect assigned to them
● Duck test: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck
● Popper’s falsifiability principle: For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be possible to disprove or refute it
● Newton’s flaming laser sword: If something cannot be settled by experiment, it is not worth debating
● Grice’s razor: Address what the speaker actually meant, instead of addressing the literal meaning of what they actually said
● Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence or stupidity
Sagan standard: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
● Hitchens razor: What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence
● Hume’s razor: Causes must be sufficiently able to produce the effect assigned to them
● Duck test: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck
● Popper’s falsifiability principle: For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be possible to disprove or refute it
● Newton’s flaming laser sword: If something cannot be settled by experiment, it is not worth debating
● Grice’s razor: Address what the speaker actually meant, instead of addressing the literal meaning of what they actually said
● Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence or stupidity