Ockham's Fetish

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."

Ockham's Fetish by Abzugal May 5, 2026