Page "Occam's razor" Paragraph 7

The origins of what has come to be known as Occam's razor are traceable to the works of earlier philosophers such as John Duns Scotus ( 1265 – 1308 ), Maimonides ( Moses ben-Maimon, 1138 – 1204 ), and even Aristotle ( 384 – 322 BC ) ( Charlesworth 1956 ).

Ptolemy ( c. AD 90 – c. AD 168 ) stated " We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible ",.

Phrases such as " It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer " and " A plurality is not to be posited without necessity " were commonplace in 13th-century scholastic writing.