Hancock's Razor edit
"Of two competing theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred."
- - Occam's Razor, attributed to William of Ockham, 14th century logician
"Of two competing theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the more ridiculous and/or "cooler" one is to be preferred."
- - Hancock's Razor, attributed to William Langius Delaney, named for 20th/21st century historian Graham Hancock
The philosophy of methodological reductionism, which has its most succinct expression in Occam's Razor, the former principle listed above, has been commonly accepted by the majority of the natural sciences and is also a major attribute of what is often called "common sense". The common man-on-the-street will accept more readily a simple explanation of a phenomenon than a convoluted one, provided the explanation is garnered from a peer and not an authority figure, in which case the gullibility rate is found to be higher.
However, despite the prominence of science in the twentieth century and the general success of positivistic scientific thought, rooted in Occam's Razor, many disagree. A principal critic of strict parsimony, beginning in the late 20th century, has been William Langius Delaney (1981 - ). Son of a local politician in Jacksonville, Florida, and working outside the other realms of criticism of philosophy of science such as postmodern critical theory, Delaney has independently developed the principle of Hancock's Razor as an alternate methodological principle in historical and scientific thought. The argument is as follows:
Rather than assuming the often dull, simplest version of events which are unknown, hypothesized, or fundamentally unknowable, life can be made more interesting if the cooler or more ridiculous (in the eye of the hypothesizer) theory is assumed to be true, despite lack of or scarcity of evidence to directly support the more extravagant theory above others.
As a significant example and namesake of this razor, Delaney proposes Graham Hancock (1951 - ) , historian and author of several books, including The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, and Underworld, whose theories regarding the origins of civilization are highly unorthodox and altogether very intriguing, according to Delaney, who also lauds the author as the "best historian ever". Following Hancock's example, Delaney proposes we take the meagerest of historical evidence and accept with the theory that fulfills the evidence in the most interesting or "coolest" manner, but always following the direct physical evidence and sometimes using the ancient myths of civilizations as guides in determining one's own version of historical truth that conforms to but is not the simplest (i.e. least interesting) explanation of said evidence.
The critical philosophical point here is this: a negative proposition can never be universally proven right; arbitrary enforcement of simplicity is not proof. Thus, if one, based on certain evidence, can construct a unique, aesthetically pleasing, or outright awesome theory that incorporates many more logical entities than the simplest possible theory, such a theory may be reasonably acccepted by applying Hancock's Razor. There need not be a problem with unnecessary multiplication of entities. The problem, according to Delaney, lies in the unnecessary multiplication of uncool entities i.e. entities which lack the requisite aesthetic level desired by the theorizer. As many entities as possible may exist without the knowledge of the speculator, thus the speculator is free to assume the existence of any highly aesthetic ones for which there is neither evidence for or against. Thus passed through the aesthetic selection of Hancock's Razor, a newly minted theory may be christened ready to assume. The theory is then altered with new hypotheses, if new evidence is brought to light.
Hancock's Razor is malleable. Occam's razor is not in the sense that the theoretical selection process is contingent alone upon simplicity, in no way taking into account the perceived aesthetic beauty or coolness of the ideas involved. Hancock's Razor slices more broadly and in a variety of patterns, all equally provable without assuming the simplest to be correct.
Fully formulated in conjunction with his longtime companion and associate, Douglas Henning, Jr. (1982 - ), Delaney's popularization of Hancock's Razor has progressed slowly. In the future, some speculate, it may become the foundation of a new paradigm of scientific and speculative thought, but for now, its general knowledge is limited.
For more information regarding Hancock's Razor, study and apply the patterns of argument employed in Graham Hancock's works in one's everyday life and thereby make the discussion of history and science more interesting with reference to unknown quantities.
See also: