Crabtree's Bludgeon

Crabtree's Bludgeon is a foil to Occam's Razor, and May Be expressed so:

"No set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated."

Its origin is obscure, but appears to be associated with R. V. Jones and may appear in the Crabtree Orations, a set of academic commentaries attributed to the poet, Joseph Crabtree after whom the Crabtree Foundation is named.

See also

  • Underdetermination
  • Ad hoc hypothesis
  • Cognitive bias

References:

Moshe Barasch (Bryan Bennett and Negley Harte, editors) (1997); The Crabtree Orations 1954-1994, Taylor & Francis Books Ltd, ISBN 0-9529987-0-X