Hitchens' razor
English
editEtymology
editAfter Christopher Hitchens' translation of a Latin law code precept, "Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur".
Proper noun
edit- A philosophical razor stating that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
- 2015 October 23, Cillian McGrattan, The Politics of Trauma and Peace-Building: Lessons from Northern Ireland, Abington, New York: Routledge, →ISBN, page 2:
- However, the limitations of a storytelling project such as this seems to be that the notion of validation is unachievable mainly because it falls short of the so-called 'Hitchens's razor': that 'that which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence'.