Glossary

I guess this would be the correct folder for this topic.

Any chance of someone compiling a small glossary of the terms that are often thrown around on this board, like "Strawman" and "Occam's Razor" (there are others, but I can't think of them at the moment)? And did we ever get the Circular Reasoning / Begging the Question issue satisfactorily cleared up?

As for me, I'm still not sure about the whole Razor thing....

Occam's Razor (from the EB):

Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate; "Plurality should not be posited without necessity." The principle gives precedence to simplicity; of two competing theories, the simplest explanation of an entity is to be preferred. The principle is also expressed "Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity."

In day-to-day American English: If there are two possible explanations for a phenomenon, use the simpler one--particularly if the simpler one is much simpler than the other.
For example, you see your three-year-old run through the house holding a blanket above his head as if it were a cape, twirling it behind him every time he changes direction. A a minute later, you walk into the living room to discover that the vase of flowers on the coffee table has fallen onto the floor as the dog snoozes near the door and the cat naps on the couch. The three-year-old explains that the the dog chased the cat through the room until the cat jumped on the couch at which time the dog stood on the couch with his forelegs while his tale swept the coffe table, then the dog could have gotten bored of the cat and gone to sleep by the door while the cat has curled up on the couch--all in the space of a minute.
You consider that the dog could have chased the cat, the cat could have sought shelter on the couch, the dog's tail could have swept the table, at which point the dog could have gone to sleep before the door, and the cat could have curled up for a nap where it was all in the space of one minute.
OR, the twirling three-year-old's cape might have encountered the vase.
Use Occam's razor to determine what happened.

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Tom~

Thanks

Much appreciated, Tom!