information:extraction, quality:correction, linguistic:voice_change
Later formulations

To quote Isaac Newton, "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. Therefore, to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes." In the sentence hypotheses non fingo, Newton affirms the success of this approach.

Bertrand Russell offers a particular version of Occam's razor: "Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities."

Around 1960, Ray Solomonoff founded the theory of universal inductive inference, the theory of prediction based on observations – for example, predicting the next symbol based upon a given series of symbols. The only assumption is that the environment follows some unknown but computable probability distribution. This theory is a mathematical formalization of Occam's razor.

Another technical approach to Occam's razor is ontological parsimony. Parsimony means spareness and is also referred to as the Rule of Simplicity. This is considered a strong version of Occam's razor. A variation used in medicine is called the " Zebra ": a physician should reject an exotic medical diagnosis when a more commonplace explanation is more likely, derived from Theodore Woodward 's dictum "When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras".

Ernst Mach formulated the stronger version of Occam's razor into physics, which he called the Principle of Economy stating: "Scientists must use the simplest means of arriving at their results and exclude everything not perceived by the senses."

This principle goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who wrote "Nature operates in the shortest way possible." The idea of parsimony or simplicity in deciding between theories, though not the intent of the original expression of Occam's razor, has been assimilated into common culture as the widespread layman's formulation that "the simplest explanation is usually the correct one."