In essence, the Occam Method is concerned with finding the simplest explanation for a given set of phenomena. That requires that the explanations are written in accordance with the following rules:
- An explanation is complete. It accounts for everything in the phenomena set, although this may require explanatory elements that are not directly observed, and therefore must be regarded as a retrofit, a hypothesis, a gap or a paradox.
- An explanation is consistent, in the sense of not contradicting itself.
- An explanation is constructable, which is to say that it is formulated without use of negations, self-referencing or infinities.
For each explanation, the missing explanatory elements have been itemized and scored.
An explanation can be properly understood only in the context of the phenomena it purports to account for. Therefore there is no list of explanations. For each phenomenon or set of phenomena, a QO explanation and the explanation proffered by mainstream science are compared using the Occam method. The simplest viable explanation is then discussed in a separate lemma.
There are three explanations which impact all domains, and are therefore treated separately:
- The QO concept of time
- The QO concept of natural law
- Strong QO: how mainstream science can be adapted to reside on a QO foundation, without the radicality of QO