Quantitative Parsimony and Explanatory Power

Abstract

The desire to minimize the number of individual new entities postulated is often referred to as quantitative parsimony. Its influence on the default hypotheses formulated by scientists seems undeniable. I argue that there is a wide class of cases for which the preference for quantitatively parsimonious hypotheses is demonstrably rational. The justification, in a nutshell, is that such hypotheses have greater explanatory power than less parsimonious alternatives. My analysis is restricted to a class of cases I shall refer to as additive. Such cases involve the postulation of a collection of qualitatively identical individual objects which collectively explain some particular observed phenomenon. Especially clear examples of this sort occur in particle physics. 1 Introduction 2 Particle physics: a case study 3 Three kinds of simplicity 4 Explanatory power 5 Explanation and non-observation 6 Parsimony and scientific methodology

The Fundamental Importance of Discourse in Theoretical Physics

“…Our differences are two-fo ld. First we agree with Barbour et [28] It is no accident that Bell t itled his collected writings "Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics" following the conclusion of Ludwig Wittgenstein's famous essay, "On the impossibility of any future metaphysics", whose concluding sentence is usually translated as "That whereof one cannot speak, that thereof one must be silent"... [16] A major goal of Bell was to show how the discourse of both the Copenhagen school and the Boh mian interpretation of quantum mechanics led to inconsistent, obscure and impossible conclusions, all o f which make for bad physics.…”

Supplemental Material for 'Phylogenetic systematics of dart-poison frogs and their relatives (Amphibia, Athesphatanura, Dendrobatidae). (Bulletin of the AMNH ; no. 299)'

“…Finding significant inconsistencies in all of those justifications, Kluge and Grant (2006) proposed a novel justification for parsimony. Drawing on recent advances in the understanding of phylogenetics as a strictly ideographic, historical science and parsimonious inference generally in the philosophy of science literature (e.g., Barnes 2000;Baker, 2003), they argued that by minimizing globally the transformation events postulated to explain the character-states of terminal taxa, equally weighted parsimony analysis maximizes explanatory power. As such, in the present study we analyzed the total, equally weighted evidence under the parsimony criterion (for additional discussion of character weighting and total evidence, see Grant and Kluge, 2003).…”

Invasion of North American beaver (Castor canadensis) in the province of Magallanes, Southern Chile: comparison between dating sites through interviews with the local community and dendrochronology

“…Even though both solutions are possible, the migration route established through the dates obtained by dendrochronology is shorter than that of obtained by interviews. According to the principle of parsimony (Baker 2003;Baker 2007;Mayo-Wilson 2009), the route determined by interviews could be considered it less likely than the one determined by dendrochronology. Moreover, the analysis of surveys indicates that the activity of a respondent is predictive of the congruence of dates between dendrochronology and the interviews (Figure 4).…”