William of Ockham (c. 1278-1347), who studied theology at Oxford, inspired what is now called Occam’s Razor, a principle of parsimony in reasoning about the world which holds that simpler models are better. This principle built on ideas circulating among Scholastic philosophers of his day, including Duns Scotus (c. 1265-1308), who maintained that “Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate,” or “Plurality should not be posited without necessity.” Ockham wielded this principle like a scalpel to cut away unnecessary parts of an argument. But why? Is it true that simpler explanations are closer to the truth, and what do “simpler” and “better” mean, anyway?

In November’s Balliol Online Lecture, Professor Vijay Balasubramanian (George Eastman Professor and Visiting Fellow 2024-2025) will draw on a variety of material, from Balliol’s medieval manuscripts collection to his own research with contemporary artificial intelligence, in order to discuss the philosophical, mathematical and physical reasons why bounded agents with limited resources may achieve more by using simpler models.

Professor Vijay Balasubramanian is the George Eastman Visiting Professor at Balliol College during the 2024-2025 academic year. As a theoretical physicist, he works in the fields of quantum gravity and the fundamental theory of forces, the study of complex quantum and classical systems, biological physics, and learning by machines and animals.

In his publications he has investigated the creation, transformation, processing, storage and transmission of information in physical systems ranging from black holes in quantum gravity to neural circuits in brains. Professor Balasubramanian is the Cathy and Marc Lasry Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.