On Thursday, February 24, 2000 5:14 PM Dan Fabulich daniel.fabulich@yale.edu
wrote:
> "I have no need of that hypothesis" is what Kepler is said to have claimed
> when he argued for his planetary orbit theory over the prevailing theory,
> which involved angels moving the heavenly bodies directly. ("Where is God
> in your model of the universe?" they might have asked him.) It's a code
> phrase for the application of Occam's Razor. When you have no need of the
> hypothesis, so the saying goes, you ought not make the hypothesis.
Minor point: it was NOT Kepler and it wasn't in regard to planety motion
exactly. It was Laplace and he was replying to Napoleon when the latter
asked him about one of his books on mechanics not having any reference to
God, Laplace allegedly replied the above statement.
Daniel Ust
On the Ockham's Razor's edge at:
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/
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