The Procedural Razor of Ockham From Negative Existentials to Ontological Redundancy
Abstract
Negative existential claims are in principle unverifiable. Any attempt to disprove existence leads to an endless regress into unobservable modalities, horizons, or reinterpretations. A significantly stronger strategy is proposed: instead of denying existence, demonstrate operational redundancy. An entity is eliminable from an ontology if its removal leaves predictions, explanations, process structures, and state discriminability unchanged. We introduce a formal criterion based on the difference operator ∆. Ontology is redefined as a dynamic revision circuit a network of operations that produce distinctions. The Procedural Razor of Ockham turns the classical principle of parsimony into a reproducible, safety-guaranteed revision protocol. The framework is applied to theology, Platonism, dualism, quantum mechanics, biology, physics, and consciousness studies. The outcome is a minimal working ontology of processes and operations.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
Philosophy
Science
and History
Epistemology
Ethics
and Metaphysics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
- Publication date
- 13 February 2026
- Language
- EN