• Skua@kbin.earth
      8·
      10 hours ago

      Occam’s razor states that the most likely explanation for something is the one that requires the fewest assumptions. Your explanation - that the cat’s owner regularly bathes the cat for no good reason - requires large assumptions about the owner that there is no evidence for. It is therefore not the answer that Occam’s razor leads to

      • Lumidaub@feddit.org
        13·
        10 hours ago

        It requires the assumption that the person has a cat and lives in a country where they commonly bathe cats.

        • Skua@kbin.earth
          5·
          10 hours ago

          Is that fewer assumptions than “there was a good reason to wash the cat”?

          You’ve also assumed that:

          • The actual original poster did not give any explanation on their post, wherever that was (since we know the tumblr blog is not the original)
          • That they would give an explanation if there was one (you have to assume this for not doing so to be meaningful evidence)
          • That they are acting surprised by the cat’s appearance despite seeing it regularly
          • Lumidaub@feddit.org
            14·
            9 hours ago

            “There may be more information elsewhere” is always implied or we couldn’t talk about anything at all ever.

            • Skua@kbin.earth
              4·
              9 hours ago

              The belief that there isn’t more information despite knowing we don’t have the original source is the assumption

              • Lumidaub@feddit.org
                14·
                9 hours ago

                Okay. What are we talking about? I honestly don’t care about the person in the OP, they may or may not be someone who bathes their cat regularly and I have nothing but this posting. How does this affect the fact that it’s not the best idea to bathe cats unless there’s a very good, specific reason?

                • Skua@kbin.earth
                  2·
                  7 hours ago

                  Are you getting threads mixed up? The only thing I’ve been arguing is that there is no reason to think that the cat’s owner does bathe the cat without a good cause

                  • Lumidaub@feddit.org
                    11·
                    5 hours ago

                    And I wasn’t arguing against that, just that there are reasons to think the opposite as well.