<P> Karl Popper argues that a preference for simple theories need not appeal to practical or aesthetic considerations . Our preference for simplicity may be justified by its falsifiability criterion: we prefer simpler theories to more complex ones "because their empirical content is greater; and because they are better testable" (Popper 1992). The idea here is that a simple theory applies to more cases than a more complex one, and is thus more easily falsifiable . This is again comparing a simple theory to a more complex theory where both explain the data equally well . </P> <P> The philosopher of science Elliott Sober once argued along the same lines as Popper, tying simplicity with "informativeness": The simplest theory is the more informative, in the sense that it requires less information to a question . He has since rejected this account of simplicity, purportedly because it fails to provide an epistemic justification for simplicity . He now believes that simplicity considerations (and considerations of parsimony in particular) do not count unless they reflect something more fundamental . Philosophers, he suggests, may have made the error of hypostatizing simplicity (i.e., endowed it with a sui generis existence), when it has meaning only when embedded in a specific context (Sober 1992). If we fail to justify simplicity considerations on the basis of the context in which we use them, we may have no non-circular justification: "Just as the question' why be rational?' may have no non-circular answer, the same may be true of the question' why should simplicity be considered in evaluating the plausibility of hypotheses?"' </P> <P> Richard Swinburne argues for simplicity on logical grounds: </P> <P>... the simplest hypothesis proposed as an explanation of phenomena is more likely to be the true one than is any other available hypothesis, that its predictions are more likely to be true than those of any other available hypothesis, and that it is an ultimate a priori epistemic principle that simplicity is evidence for truth . </P>

All other factors being equal both the simple interest