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Philosophy

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Tim Minchins Storm the Animated Movie. Occam's razor. William of Ockham Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose two explanations are equally likely. In this case the simpler one is usually better. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is. History[change | edit source] William of Ockham, a Franciscan friar who studied logic in the 14th century, first made this principle well known.[1] In Latin it is sometimes called lex parsimoniae, or "the law of briefness". Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.[1]More things should not be used than are necessary. This means that if there are several possible ways that something might have happened, the way that uses the fewest guesses is probably the right one. Occam's razor is a principle, not an actual razor: the word 'razor' is a metaphor.

Further ideas[change | edit source] "We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible. " List of unsolved problems in philosophy. This is a list of some of the major unsolved problems in philosophy. Clearly, unsolved philosophical problems exist in the lay sense (e.g. "What is the meaning of life? ", "Where did we come from? ", "What is reality? ", etc.). However, professional philosophers generally accord serious philosophical problems specific names or questions, which indicate a particular method of attack or line of reasoning.

Aesthetics[edit] Essentialism[edit] In art, essentialism is the idea that each medium has its own particular strengths and weaknesses, contingent on its mode of communication. Art objects[edit] This problem originally arose from the practice rather than theory of art. While it is easy to dismiss these assertions, further investigation[who?] Epistemology[edit] Epistemological problems are concerned with the nature, scope and limitations of knowledge.

Gettier problem[edit] In response to Gettier's article, numerous philosophers have offered modified criteria for "knowledge. " Qualia[edit] [edit] How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Philip Zimbardo: The Secret Powers of Time (Animated) Bio Philip Zimbardo Philip Zimbardo is internationally recognized as a leading "voice and face of contemporary psychology" through his widely seen PBS-TV series, "Discovering Psychology," his media appearances, best-selling trade books on shyness, and his classic research, The Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo has been a Stanford University professor since 1968 (now an Emeritus Professor), having taught previously at Yale, NYU, and Columbia University.

He continues teaching graduate students at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, and at the Naval Post Graduate School (Monterey). He has been given numerous awards and honors as an educator, researcher, writer, and service to the profession. Recently, he was awarded the Havel Foundation Prize for his lifetime of research on the human condition. He heads a philanthropic foundation in his name to promote education in his ancestral Sicilian towns. To download this program become a Front Row member. Encyclopædia Britannica Article time. Depressive realism.

Evidence for[edit] Evidence against[edit] When asked to rate both their performance and the performance of another, non-depressed individuals demonstrated positive bias when rating themselves but no bias when rating others. Criticism of the evidence[edit] Some have argued that the evidence is not more conclusive because there is no standard for "reality," the diagnoses are dubious, and the results may not apply to the real world.[33] Because many studies rely on self-report of depressive symptoms, the diagnosis of depression in these studies may not be valid as self-reports are known to often be biased, necessitating the use of other objective measures. Due to most of these studies using designs that do not necessarily approximate real-world phenomena, the external validity of the depressive realism hypothesis is unclear.

See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ Alloy,L.B., Abramson,L.Y. (1988). Further reading[edit] Rachel Adelson (April 2005).