Parsimony Is Not Always a Good Thing..

We are living in a complex world—embedded with complex ideas, concepts and etc.

But as far as I know, people would always prefer to explain things simply in order for them to understand a certain phenomenon. It’s sort of a good thing but I’d rather prefer for a broader explanation, comprehension, and interpretations. And not just limit myself for a simpler one—I want expansion of ideas!

For me, parsimony is not always a good thing. But before stating my stand which regards on this matter, let me just first define the word parsimony and its advantages.

According to the definition which has been taken up from Merriam Webster, “Parsimony is a less better concept of frugality, stinginess, or caution in arriving at a hypothesis, or course of action”. The word came from Middle English parcimony, from Latin parsimonia, from parsus, past participle of parcere: to spare. It’s a general principle that has applications in science, philosophy and all other fields.

William of Ockham also said that “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity” and this means that the simplest and the most specific answer is preferred.

In explaining such concepts in an easy way, some researchers would use the shortcut or the simplest method. They apply the rule of parsimony in explaining their works and not making it as an intricate puzzle to deal with. They believe that without this rule, scientific theories would become needlessly complicated. It will take many years for Einstein to explain the theory of relativity and Newton’s law of gravity if they will find more concepts in further explaining it. Perhaps some of the grade school pupils wouldn’t be able to know its basics if it’s too difficult to understand. Since science is well known for its search for truth, it aims to explain things simply; they try to be more specific and precise.

Another example is in a linguistic parsimony, the use of the word “four” is most likely acceptable because it’s in its simplest form to denote a certain number. Instead of stating that in a manner like “the number that is greater than three and lesser than five”. Using the parsimonious way in this instance is preferable.

But not all the time parsimony is a good thing. Explaining theories, concepts, and observations should not be limited. We should open up new ideas, and branch out our explanations to a certain matter. We have to clarify things and explore more proofs because in the long run there are tendencies that gaps or even lapses may occur—that need a lot more explanations.

Nowadays, a lot of research works have been presented to this modern world. And if people have a minute detail or just a simple knowledge/ explanations about it, there understanding will be confined—half-baked in a sense. Although, it’s more complicated to elaborate things further, we have to do it whenever it’s badly needed. We shouldn’t narrow down our concepts and arrive into shallow explanations; we need to give the supporting details to explicate more.

Explaining theories simply may give people a more easy way to grasp ideas. Yet, tracking down concepts can also give them a wide variety of knowledge and understandings.

Take it from me, “Explaining things simply is a good thing –but it is not always good as to what we are expecting”.