Hanlon's razor

Hanlon's razor is an aphorism expressed in various ways including "never assume bad intentions when assuming stupidity is enough", "never assume malice when stupidity will suffice", and "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". It recommends a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for a phenomenon (a philosophical razor).

As an eponymous law, it may have been named after Robert J. Hanlon. There are also earlier sayings that convey the same idea dating back at least as far as Goethe in 1774.

Origins and etymology

Inspired by Occam's razor,[1] the aphorism was popularized in this form and under this name by the Jargon File, a glossary of computer programmer slang.[2][3] In 1990, it appeared in the Jargon File described as a "'murphyism' parallel to Occam's Razor".[4] Later that same year, the Jargon File editors noted lack of knowledge about the term's derivation and the existence of a similar epigram by William James.[5] In 1996, the Jargon File entry on Hanlon's Razor noted the existence of a similar quotation in Robert A. Heinlein's short story "Logic of Empire" (1941), with speculation that Hanlon's Razor might be a corruption of "Heinlein's Razor".[6][3] (Heinlein termed it "the devil" theory of sociology, and wrote, "You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity".)[7]

In 2001, Quentin Stafford-Fraser published two blog entries citing e-mails from one Joseph E. Bigler[8][9] about how the quotation originally came from Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, as a submission for a book compilation of various jokes related to Murphy's law published in Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong! (1980).[10] Subsequently, in 2002, the Jargon File entry noted the same, though not definitively.[11]

Similar quotations

Another similar quotation appears in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774):

...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.[12]

Similarly, Jane West's The Loyalists (1812) includes:

Let us not attribute to malice and cruelty what may be referred to less criminal motives. Do we not often afflict others undesignedly, and, from mere carelessness, neglect to relieve distress?[13]

A common (and more laconic) British English variation, coined by Bernard Ingham, is the saying "cock-up before conspiracy", deriving from this 1985 quotation:

Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory.[14]

Another similar instance from politics is the attribution by First Minister of Scotland, Henry McLeish, of financial irregularities that led to his resignation in 2001, to "a muddle not a fiddle".[15]

"Heinlein's Razor" has since been defined as variations on "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice." This quotation is falsely attributed to Albert Einstein in Peter W. Singer's book Wired for War (2009).[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Giancarlo Livraghi, Il potere della stupidità, Monti & Ambrosini, Pescara, Italy, 2004, p. 1
  2. ↑ "Hanlon's Razor". Jargon File, as of v4.3.2. Eric S. Raymond. 2002-03-03. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  3. 1 2 Andrew S. Wigosky (2004). RAPID Value Management for the Business Cost of Ownership. Digital Press. p. 5. ISBN 9781555582890. [...] Hanlon's Razor: 'Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.' This definition comes from 'The Jargon File' (edited by Eric Raymond), but one poster attributes it to Robert Heinlein, in a 1941 story called 'Logic of Empire.'
  4. ↑ Guy L. Steele; Eric S. Raymond (eds.). "The Jargon File, Version 2.1.1 (Draft) 12 Jun 1990". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  5. ↑ Eric S. Raymond; Guy L. Steele (eds.). "The Jargon File, Version 2.2.1 15 DEC 1990". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  6. ↑ Eric S. Raymond (ed.). "The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  7. ↑ Wikiquote:Robert J. Hanlon
  8. ↑ "[untitled]". Status-Q - Quentin Stafford-Fraser's blog. 2001-11-26. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  9. ↑ "[untitled]". Status-Q - Quentin Stafford-Fraser's blog. 2001-12-04. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  10. ↑ Arthur Bloch (1980). Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong!. Price Stern Sloan. p. 52. ISBN 0-417-06450-0.
  11. ↑ Eric S. Raymond (ed.). "The Jargon File, Version 4.3.2, 3 Mar 2002". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  12. ↑ "daß Mißverständnisse und Trägheit vielleicht mehr Irrungen in der Welt machen als List und Bosheit. Wenigstens sind die beiden letzteren gewiß seltener." Werther. Erstes Buch. zeno.org
  13. ↑ Jane West (1812). "Chapter XXII". The Loyalists 2. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  14. ↑ Pigden, Charles (2006). "Chapter 3: Popper Revised, or What is Wrong with Conspiracy Theories?". In David Coady. Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate. p. 17. Quoted in the Otago Daily Times, 3/4/85.
  15. ↑ "First minister denies office fiddle". BBC News. 6 November 2001.
  16. ↑ Singer, Peter W. (2009). Wired for War. p. 434. ISBN 1594201986.

External links

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