An obsessive, dogmatic attachment to Ockham's razor—the principle that simpler explanations are preferable—to the point where simplicity becomes an absolute value overriding
evidence, complexity, or explanatory power. The fetishist worships parsimony as a metaphysical
truth rather than a heuristic
tool, dismissing any theory that isn't the simplest possible as inherently wrong. This leads to the rejection of well-supported but complex models (e.
g., climate science, evolutionary biology) in favor of simplistic but false explanations. Ockham's
fetish mistakes a pragmatic guideline for a law of nature, using "simplicity" as a rhetorical cudgel rather than a genuine epistemic virtue.
Example: "He rejected the multi-factor model of disease because it wasn't as simple as 'one
germ, one illness'—
pure Ockham's
fetish, sacrificing accuracy for elegance."