Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

Parsimony arguments are advanced in both science and philosophy.  How are they related?  In this  talk, I  will describe the justifications that attach to two types of parsimony argument in science.  In the first, parsimony is a surrogate for likelihood.  In the second, parsimony is relevant to estimating how accurately a model will predict new data when fitted to old.  I then  will consider how these two justifications apply to some parsimony arguments that have been made in philosophy.