Statistical learning theory and Occam's razor: Regularization
The principle of Occam's razor, which instructs us to prefer simplicity in inductive inference, has attracted much scrutiny both in the philosophy of science and in machine learning. In either field, however, a justification for the principle has been elusive. In this paper, building on an earlier "core argument," I spell out a justification from statistical learning theory for the procedure of regularization: for trading off fit for simplicity. The means-ends argument is that in order to profit from theoretical reliability and "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" guarantees, one must implement a certain preference for simplicity over fit. This is a genuine methodological justification, which n...
| Authors | Tom F. Sterkenburg |
|---|---|
| Primary category | stat.ML |
| Published | 4 August 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 4 August 2026 |
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