Otto’s razor: Difference between revisions

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-{{a|work|}}{{quote|
+{{a|work|
-''HERCULIO'': ’Tis neither malice, spite, nor virtue <br>
+{{image|Drama and mistake|png|''[[Die Schweizer Heulsuse]]'' at the Donmar Warehouse during Lockdown}}
-Whose ledger swells, or plucks, the seedy fruits of progress — <br>
+}}{{dsh razor quote}}
-But mainly accident. <br>
-Lest thy with surety know aught else —<br>
-Withhold thy assignations.<br>
-''TRIAGO'': Pish upon thee, nuncle. Pish! <br>
-Dost thou mean to say <br>
-Things peel this way<br>
-Through doughty misadventure?<br>
-''HERCULIO'': Peradventure — <br>
-''TRIAGO'': Pish abeam! <br>
-Wouldst thou ’pon this shaky surmise <br>
-Withhold thy rebuke? Has thou<br>
-No more to say than that?<br>
-''HERCULIO'': ’Tis but a fluke.
-:—{{buchstein}}, {{dsh}}}}
+A rule of thumb, attributed to 19th century Austrian plowright [''playwright? — Ed''] {{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).
-A rule of thumb, attributed to 19th century Austrian plowright {{buchstein}}, that recommends when there are plausible alternative explanations for a given piece of behaviour, one should choose the simplest-minded, preferring cloth-headedness or coincidence over the artful application of intelligence, inspiration, “malice, spite, or virtue”.
+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.
-Until the contrary is proven, we should treat both the pinnacles of cultural achievement and the chasms of mortal calumny the product of accident and not design. Give people the benefit of the doubt, in other words, that their hurtful deeds were careless, unless you have positive grounds to believe they are devious. On the other hand, the spontaneous thoughtful gesture, that stroke of sudden genius, was just as likely ill-thought out.
+{{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.
-{{dsh}} was a comic farce, but (until the dengue fever got him) [[Büchstein]] took the aphorism seriously, was fond of pointing out apparent monuments to human triumph and stains of monstrous wickedness that in fact came about by more or less fortunate adjacency, and not intelligent design.  By the time the “razor” caught on, [[Büchstein]] was deep in a Papaya-juice inflected hallucinations from which he did not recover. This is just as well as assuming the pithiness of Buchstein’s text to be accidental, Robert J Hanlon rebadged (and, frankly, improved) it to read “do not attribute malice to things that can just as well be explained by stupidity.” and that is how it has remained to this day.
+Indeed it is a healthy, skeptical disposition to take into the world, and those who find uncanny success would do 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 be 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>
 {{Sa}}
 *[[Occam’s razor]]
 *{{buchstein}}
+{{ref}}