Life Is Simple Review: A Blade to Shave Away Error – The Wall Street Journal

If a friend tells you Ive seen a UFO! what would you think? It might have been an alien spacecraftor perhaps the friend was mistaken. The first possibility requires numerous unproven assumptions about extraterrestrial life; the second is consistent with what we know about human fallibility. The 14th-century Franciscan friar William of Occam was never troubled by flying saucers, but he did see the importance of eliminating unnecessary assumptionsthe principle known as Occams Razor. It forms the central theme of Johnjoe McFaddens Life Is Simple, a tour through two millennia of scientific discovery.

Mr. McFadden is professor of molecular genetics at the University of Surrey in England. His interest in Occam was sparked by a daily commute which took him past the village of Ockham, where William was born, probably around 1287. Little is known about Williams early life, but by his thirties his writings on philosophy and theology were widely readand highly controversial.

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Life Is Simple Review: A Blade to Shave Away Error - The Wall Street Journal