Walter Chatton (c. 1290–1343) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Scholastic theologian and philosopher who regularly sparred philosophically with

William of Ockham William of Ockham, OFM (; also Occam, from la, Gulielmus Occamus; 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small vill ...

, who is well known for

Occam's razor Occam's razor, Ockham's razor, or Ocham's razor ( la, novacula Occami), also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony ( la, lex parsimoniae), is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied beyond neces ...

. Chatton proposed an "anti-razor". From his ''Lectura'' I d. 3, q. 1, a. 1:

Whenever an affirmative proposition is apt to be verified for actually existing things, if two things, howsoever they are present according to arrangement and duration, cannot suffice for the verification of the proposition while another thing is lacking, then one must posit that other thing.

In basic terms, he was arguing against Ockham's razor by stating that if an explanation does not satisfactorily determine the truth of a proposition, and you are sure that the explanation so far is true, some other explanation must be required.

References

* 13th-century philosophers 14th-century philosophers Year of birth uncertain 1343 deaths {{England-philosopher-stub