Talk:Hanlon's razor
Add topicLatest comment: 4 months ago by Palitzsch250 in topic Origins
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Origins
[edit]Because I needed "Hanlon's explanation" today, I found there:
…that Goethe already had the same idea (I'm reminded, by the way, of Thomas Hobbes when he wrote ironically about the equal distribution of intelligence).
In English:
"... misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent..."
As someone biased from Goethe, I just wanted to suggest it here in the discussion, saw that there is a lot in the archive und found indeed that already 2007 somebody wrote about the origins with Goethe:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hanlon%27s_razor/Archive_1#Origins
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Hanlon%27s_razor&diff=prev&oldid=146492358
Wouldn't exist the :
... the phenomenon could be called Werther's razor. Palitzsch250 (talk) 16:05, 14 March 2026 (UTC)
- That's a somewhat related concept but not the same thing, and at least how I conceive of the term it's not a razor- it talks about outcomes in an overall, aggregate sense. Hanlon's razor is a problem-solving principle. It is advice to counteract a common human error to often bias one's explanation of a particular event toward evil, just as Occam's razor is advice to counteract a common human error to bias toward a complex explanation. Also, there is value in crafting a pithy, memorable phrase to encapsulate an existing idea, and it's normal to quote the person who formatted well rather than hunting for antecedents for parts of the concept.--Noren (talk) 17:50, 14 March 2026 (UTC)
- I just copied the headline "Origins" and had exaggerated it. Actually I should use the heading "Variations", because there: Hanlon's razor#Variations ... stand similar things and we can trace the concept at least to Goethes Werther, a book that was an European bestseller. Because I know a lot of people who don´t think about this explanation of world affairs I assume that it is not common sense, and it would be interesting how long we can retrace this idea. As I learned, Goethe found this finding very disappointing, and there aren't many people with a biography like his. Again sharpened : The idea that stupidity rules the world ( and not e.g. the money ) isn't so old, isn't it ? Palitzsch250 (talk) 18:31, 15 March 2026 (UTC)
- I must respond to my own obtuseness: Hanlon´s Razor (as a funny, scientific-sounding aid to understanding, not a working problem-solving principle) is just the same insight as Plato with his Philosopher king and his Allegory of the cave, or Aristotle with his three types of human beings in the Nicomachean Ethics. Old wine in new bottles ! But in vino veritas ! Palitzsch250 (talk) 16:37, 16 March 2026 (UTC)
- I just copied the headline "Origins" and had exaggerated it. Actually I should use the heading "Variations", because there: Hanlon's razor#Variations ... stand similar things and we can trace the concept at least to Goethes Werther, a book that was an European bestseller. Because I know a lot of people who don´t think about this explanation of world affairs I assume that it is not common sense, and it would be interesting how long we can retrace this idea. As I learned, Goethe found this finding very disappointing, and there aren't many people with a biography like his. Again sharpened : The idea that stupidity rules the world ( and not e.g. the money ) isn't so old, isn't it ? Palitzsch250 (talk) 18:31, 15 March 2026 (UTC)