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Otto’s razor: Difference between revisions
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}}{{dsh razor quote}} | }}{{dsh razor quote}} | ||
A rule of thumb, attributed to 19th century Austrian plowright {{buchstein}}, that recommends when there are plausible alternative explanations for behaviour, one should choose the simplest-minded, preferring cloth-headedness or coincidence over the artful application of intelligence | A rule of thumb, attributed to 19th century Austrian plowright {{buchstein}}, in his play {{Dsh}} ([[Die Schweizer Heulsuse|“The Swiss Milquetoast”]]) that recommends when there are plausible alternative explanations for a person’s behaviour, one should choose the simplest-''minded'', preferring cloth-headedness or coincidence over the artful application of intelligence or inspiration (for beneficent actions), or “malice, spite, or virtue” (for odious ones). | ||
Until the contrary is proven, treat both the pinnacles of success and the chasms of calumny as produce of accident and not | Until the contrary is proven, treat both the pinnacles of success and the chasms of calumny as the produce of ''accident'' and not intention. Give the benefit of the doubt to wrong-doers for deeds that present as wilful, and withhold it from do-gooders for their strokes of uncommon genius, until such time as there is no other realistic way of explaining them. | ||
{{dsh}} was a light-hearted comic farce, but (until the dengue fever got him) [[Büchstein]] took | {{dsh}} was a light-hearted comic farce, but (until the dengue fever got him) [[Büchstein]] took his aphorism seriously — he would credit it, when drunk, to Goethe, Schiller or even Aristotle — and would gleefully point out to disbelieving dinner guests celebrated monuments to human triumph and notorious stains of monstrous wickedness that in fact came about by more or less fortunate adjacency, and not intelligent design. | ||
In a sad irony, by the time his “razor” caught on, [[Büchstein]] was deep in | Indeed it is a healthy, skeptical, dispostion to take into the world, and those who find success would be well to bear it in mind. | ||
In a sad irony, by the time his “razor” caught on, [[Büchstein]] was deep in series of debilitating, Papaya-juice inflected hallucinations from which he did not recover.<ref>A poultice made from a preparation of papaya and coconut was a popular treatment for Dengue fever at the time.</ref> | |||
This is just as well, for the ironies multiplied thereafter: assuming the pithiness of Büchstein’s text to just such an accidental epiphany, colonial jurist Albert Hanlon nicked it, rebadging (and, frankly, improving) it to read “do not attribute to malice things that can just as well be explained by stupidity” and that is how it has remained, as “[[Hanlon’s razor]]”, to this day.<ref>None of this is true. Not a word.</ref> | This is just as well, for the ironies multiplied thereafter: assuming the pithiness of Büchstein’s text to just such an accidental epiphany, colonial jurist Albert Hanlon nicked it, rebadging (and, frankly, improving) it to read “do not attribute to malice things that can just as well be explained by stupidity” and that is how it has remained, as “[[Hanlon’s razor]]”, to this day.<ref>None of this is true. Not a word.</ref> | ||