Dark Fields

Occam's razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Occam. It states: "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." This has been rephrased by many but might be most usefully stated as: "When you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better." Simplicity, of course, is very subjective but often applies to metaphysics, non-empirical understanding.

For example: Einstein's theory of special relativity compared with Lorentz's theory that ruler's contract and clocks slow down when in motion through the ether. The equations are the same but, because the ether could not be detected, by Occam's razor it had to be eliminated.

Life, of course, does not always lend itself to simplicity. Evolution proceeds in a Rube Goldberg manner: Whatever survives, stays. Hence the octopus and the camel. Nor are we humans easily simplified, to the dismay of our leaders.

A number of years ago a physician, V. S. IAnovskii, immigrated to the United States and ended up working in a venereal disease clinic. His experiences distressed him so that he wrote a book about them called, cleverly, "The Dark Fields of Venus." It was not a profound book, just a collection of vignettes about the mostly young people he treated and how the disease damaged their lives. It was "2666"-like in its repetitive, relentless focus. But, he concluded, it was not just the spirochete. There was something bigger, something more at work here as these people searched their physical health for more than physical solutions. Somehow their affliction was a small part--perhaps even a consequence--of a larger, empty yet yearning personal landscape, a dark field.

Whatever the solution, he concluded, "penicillin was not enough."

Which makes one think of Einstein's take on Occam: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."