Concept in Definition ABC

The parsimony serves to define a way of doing things where calm and tranquility prevail, being able to even have a connotation negative. On the other hand, sometimes, it is also used to refer to people who have great control over their emotions, giving the impression of an excess of coldness in the spirit.

In a completely different realm, the term parsimony is used to refer to simple theories that allow to explain different phenomena from a series of propositions not superficial.

The principle of parsimony

It has happened to everyone on occasion that faced with a situation that is becoming more and more complicated, it could have been solved much faster if it had simply been chosen from a beginning for adopting the solution simpler. This way of approaching problems is what is known as the principle of parsimony.

In science, this principle is more commonly known as Ockham's razor, which, explained in a brief, is that when several solutions are proposed to the same problem, the simplest is usually the best.

William Ockham was a Franciscan friar of the fourteenth century who tried to explain that in nature the simple always triumphs over the complex, and starting from this axiom, suggested that in order to find an explanation for a phenomenon, we must limit the number of assumptions as much as possible, leaving only the most plausible ones.

This form of think it was the one that caused that in later centuries other scientists to coin the metaphor of the razor. Passing a razor through the explanation removes all accessory items, leaving only the essentials. Hence, the principle of parsimony is also known as Ockham's razor.

But this way of thinking presents a serious problem, and that is that although it is a very useful way of facing a problem, it does not provide a categorical solution by any means. The appearance of new data can make a theory Previously believed to be correct, it is replaced by a new, much more complex theory, as happens, for example, in Einstein's gravitational model that replaced Newton's.

By way of resume, it can be concluded that the principle of parsimony is very useful when looking for the explanation of a phenomenon, but not for this reason the simplest explanation has to be the true one.

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