Van Den Berg Hugo A
Sci Prog. 2018 Sep 1;101(3):261-272. doi: 10.3184/003685018X15295002645082. Epub 2018 Jul 19.
The principle of parsimony, also known as 'Occam's razor', is a heuristic dictum that is thoroughly familiar to virtually all practitioners of science: Aristotle, Newton, and many others have enunciated it in some form or other. Even though the principle is not difficult to comprehend as a general heuristic guideline, it has proved surprisingly resistant to being put on a rigorous footing - a difficulty that has become more pressing and topical with the 'big data' explosion. We review the significance of Occam's razor in the philosophical and theological writings of William of Ockham, and survey modern developments of parsimony in data science.
简约原则,也被称为“奥卡姆剃刀”,是一条启发式格言,几乎所有科学从业者都对其耳熟能详:亚里士多德、牛顿以及许多其他人都曾以某种形式阐述过它。尽管作为一条一般性的启发式指导原则,该原则不难理解,但事实证明,要将其置于严谨的基础之上却出奇地困难——随着“大数据”的爆炸式增长,这一困难变得更加紧迫且热门。我们回顾了奥卡姆剃刀在威廉·奥卡姆的哲学和神学著作中的重要性,并审视了数据科学中简约原则的现代发展。