Michael Worthington: Applying Occam’s Razor to the assassination of JFK – The Daily Reflector

Occam’s Razor is a principle of logic that states that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. It’s named after William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher. It’s been applied to many disciplines, including medicine, science and even politics. For example, a headache could be due to dehydration or brain cancer, but the simplest cause would be not drinking enough water, so that’s probably the right one.

This principle is particularly applicable to conspiracy theories, such as speculation about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The Warren Commission thoroughly investigated the event and released an 888-page report with 26 volumes of supporting documents. However, many documents remained classified to protect the sources and methods of the intelligence agencies because both the CIA and FBI had investigated Lee Harvey Oswald. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald was the sole shooter and that there was no conspiracy to kill the president. But in 1976, a Senate select committee reviewed the Warren Commission’s report and came to the conclusion that audio tapes revealed there were two shooters.