simplicity
American Heritage Dictionary:
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sim·plic·i·ty
(sĭm-plĭs'ĭ-tē) 
n., pl., -ties.
n., pl., -ties.
- The property, condition, or quality of being simple or uncombined.
- Absence of luxury or showiness; plainness.
- Absence of affectation or pretense.
- Lack of sophistication or subtlety; naiveté.
- Lack of good sense or intelligence; foolishness.
- Clarity of expression.
- Austerity in embellishment.
[Middle English simplicite, from Old French, from Latin simplicitās, from simplex, simplic-, simple.]
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simplicity
Roget's Thesaurus:
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simplicity
noun
- Lack of ostentation or pretension: modesty, plainness, simpleness, unassumingness, unostentatiousness, unpretentiousness. See plain/fancy.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
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simplicity
n
Definition: absence of complication, sophistication
Antonyms: complexity, complication, difficultness, difficulty
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy:
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simplicity
One of the virtues of a good theory, although it may not be clear why, given that there seems to be no a priori reason to expect it to be a reliable guide to truth. See explanation; science, philosophy of.
Quotes About:
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Simplicity
Quotes:
"Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us; but simplicity and straight forwardness are. Write much as you would speak; speak as you think. If with your inferior, speak no coarser than usual; if with your superiors, no finer."
- Alford
"Simplicity is natures first step, and the last of art."
- Philip James Bailey
"The price we pay for the complexity of life is too high. When you think of all the effort you have to put in --telephonic, technological and relational --to alter even the slightest bit of behavior in this strange world we call social life, you are left pining for the straightforwardness of primitive peoples and their physical work."
- Jean Baudrillard
"I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing."
- Tony Bennett
"What is conceived well is expressed clearly."
- Philippe Nericault Destouches
"Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity."
- Christian Nevell Bovee
See more famous quotes about Simplicity
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Simplicity
For other uses, see Simplicity (disambiguation).
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason specified. Please add a |reason= parameter to this template. Please help improve this article if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (June 2008) |
Simplicity is the state or quality of being simple. It usually relates to the burden which a thing puts on someone trying to explain or understand it. Something which is easy to understand or explain is simple, in contrast to something complicated. Alternatively, as Herbert A. Simon suggested, something is simple or complex depending on the way we choose to describe it.[1]
In some uses, simplicity can be used to imply beauty, purity or clarity. Simplicity may also be used in a negative connotation to denote a deficit or insufficiency of nuance or complexity of a thing, relative to what is supposed to be required.
The concept of simplicity has been related to truth in the field of epistemology. According to Occam's razor, all other things being equal, the simplest theory is the most likely to be true. In the context of human lifestyle, simplicity can denote freedom from hardship, effort or confusion. Specifically, it can refer to a simple living lifestyle.
Simplicity is a theme in the Christian religion. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, God is infinitely simple. The Roman Catholic and Anglican religious orders of Franciscans also strive after simplicity. Members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) practice the Testimony of Simplicity, which is the simplifying of one's life in order to focus on things that are most important and disregard or avoid things that are least important.
In the philosophy of science, simplicity is a meta-scientific criterion by which to evaluate competing theories. See also Occam's Razor and references. The similar concept of Parsimony is also used in philosophy of science, that is the explanation of a phenomenon which is the least involved is held to have superior value to a more involved one.
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Contents
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Notes
- ^ Simon 1962, p. 481
See also
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Simplicity |
- Complexity
- KISS principle
- Minimalism
- Occam's razor
- Simple living
- Simplicity theory
- Testimony of Simplicity
- Worse is better
- John Maeda - 10 Laws of Simplicity
References
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2010) |
- Craig, E. Ed. (1998) Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London, Routledge. simplicity (in Scientific Theory) p. 780–783
- Dancy, J. and Ernest Sosa, Ed.(1999) A Companion to Epistemology. Malden, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publishers Inc. simplicity p. 477–479.
- Dowe, D. L., S. Gardner & G. Oppy (2007), "Bayes not Bust! Why Simplicity is no Problem for Bayesians", Brit. J. Phil. Sci., Vol. 58, Dec. 2007, 46pp. [Among other things, this paper compares MML with AIC.]
- Edwards, P., Ed. (1967). The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York, The Macmillan Company. simplicity p. 445–448.
- Kim, J. a. E. S., Ed.(2000). A Companion to Metaphysics. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers. simplicity, parsimony p. 461–462.
- Maeda, J., (2006) Laws of Simplicity, MIT Press
- Newton-Smith, W. H., Ed. (2001). A Companion to the Philosophy of Science. Malden, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publishers Ltd. simplicity p. 433–441.
- Richmond, Samuel A.(1996)"A Simplification of the Theory of Simplicity", Synthese 107 373-393.
- Sarkar, S. Ed. (2002). The Philosophy of Science—An Encyclopedia. London, Routledge. simplicity
- Schmölders, Claudia (1974). Simplizität, Naivetät, Einfalt – Studien zur ästhetischen Terminologie in Frankreich und in Deutschland, 1674 - 1771. PDF, 37MB (German)
- Scott, Brian(1996) "Technical Notes on a Theory of Simplicity", Synthese 109 281-289.
- Simon, Herbert A (1962) The Architecture of Complexity Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106, 467-482.
- Wilson, R. A. a. K., Frank C., (1999). The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press. parsimony and simplicity p. 627–629.
External links
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Translations:
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Simplicity
Dansk (Danish)
n. - enkelthed, simpelhed, letfattelighed
idioms:
- simplicity itself ganske enkelt, såre nemt
Français (French)
n. - simplicité, sobriété
idioms:
- simplicity itself (la) simplicité même
Deutsch (German)
n. - Einfachheit, Schlichtheit
idioms:
- simplicity itself ein Kinderspiel
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - απλότητα, λιτότητα, απλοϊκότητα
idioms:
- simplicity itself ό, τι το απλούστερο
Italiano (Italian)
innocenza, semplicità
idioms:
- simplicity itself la semplicità in persona
Português (Portuguese)
n. - simplicidade (f), sinceridade (f), disparate (f), candura (f)
idioms:
- simplicity itself assim simples
Русский (Russian)
простота, несложность, простота структуры, неразложимость, незатейливость, простодушие, недалекость
idioms:
- simplicity itself проще простого, легче не придумаешь
Español (Spanish)
n. - sencillez, ingenuidad, naturalidad
idioms:
- simplicity itself la sencillez personificada
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - enkelhet, enkel form, anspråkslöshet
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
简单, 简易, 简明易懂的事物, 简明, 简朴, 朴素
idioms:
- simplicity itself 极为容易
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 簡單, 簡易, 簡明易懂的事物, 簡明, 簡樸, 樸素
idioms:
- simplicity itself 極為容易
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 簡単, 単純, 質素, 愚かさ, 素朴, 単一
idioms:
- simplicity itself 全く簡単な
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) سذاجه, بساطه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - פשטות, תמימות
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Simplicity.
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