Stupidity can explain a lot of behavior

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wikipedia says that:

 

“In philosophy, Occam’s razor is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations with the smallest possible set of elements. It is also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony.”

 

There is a mores specific principle called Hanlon’s razor that instead says:   

 

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”

 

It is discussed an article by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator on December 30, 2016 titled Quote Origin: Never Attribute to Malice That Which Is Adequately Explained by Stupidity. He attributes it to being from 1980 by computer programmer Robert J. Hanlon. But he points to similar statements as far back as 1757 by philosopher David Hume.

 

Jono Hey has a cartoon about it at his Sketchplanations. And there is a serious discussion by Nathan Ballantyne and Peter H. Ditto at Midwest Studies in Philosophy for August 2021 in an article simply titled Hanlon’s Razor.

 

The straight razor in my cartoon was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.