On the simplicity of the curve hypotheses

Abstract

Popper's theory of simplicity has three great merits advocating it: it has intuitive appeal, it proposes a clear criterion for judging the relative simplicity of rival hypotheses, and, finally, it answers the question of the justification of simplicity by way of Popper's general theory of falsification. Though the theory has clear application only in the case of curve hypotheses, like those of the trajectories of heavenly objects in astronomy, or of subparticles in physics, it can be extended to other hypotheses of the mature sciences, especially as natural laws are expressible in mathematical terms that have corresponding graphic representations. Despite the usual anti-Popperian objection, that this is not what the scientists in fact do, I the theory could have been an excellent starting point for both Popperian and non-Popperian investigators of simplicity, had it not been for some serious doubts concerning the formal correctness of the theory.