Apply the Casuist’s Razor to an explanation, judgment, or argument of your choice. Suggestions from answers to “What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation”: Marti Hearst, Stuart Pimm, Laurence C. Smith, Evgeny Morozov. Bonus points for an evenhanded application to your favorite argument on copyright, piracy, software patents, drug use, abortion, free speech, or another potentially value-laden topic. What phenomena are correctly explained, or what actions are correctly judged? In what cases or in what sense does the opposite explanation or principle correct? What would a more complete account or judgment look like? (How do you reconcile your previous answers? What details do you need to consider? What are the relevant empirical predictions or consequences?)

Extra credit: Apply the Casuist’s Razor to itself. What explanations (etc.) does it correctly identify as good? What is the opposite principle, and what explanations does that correctly identify as good? What details of those explanations are needed to make these accounts compatible?