newton's flaming laser sword
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.76 in modern English
37
Scrabble Score
24
Letters
4
Syllables
14
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A philosophical razor which states that propositions or claims that cannot be resolved through experiment or observation are not worth debating.
Example Sentences
- "Mathematicians and scientists feel that they have found a more difficult but much more satisfying game to play. Newton's Flaming Laser Sword is one of the rules of that game."
- "Also, I invoke Newton's Flaming Laser Sword on this thread."
- "I prefer to be anti-religion and live by Newton's flaming laser sword, Occam's Razor and Hanlon's Razor."
- "What is the actual point of adding in God to your equation if it is a^([sic]) unknown domain? So, we remove such variables using the Newton's Flaming Laser Sword."
- "Just demanding there is nothing you can do, because the flashy light told you so is grounds for Newton's Flaming Laser Sword."
- "Put as much math as you want to it, and it's still a philosophical statement... to which I say that Newton's Flaming Laser Sword is the best response: "what cannot be settled by experiment is not worth debating"."
Etymology
Named after Isaac Newton. Coined by Australian mathematician and philosopher Mike Alder in 2004 in an article of the same title, to be hyperbolically “much sharper and more dangerous than Occam's razor”.