“That is better and more valuable which requires fewer”

— Robert Grosseteste

i. 17, f. 17<sup>vb</sup>
Commentarius in Posteriorum Analyticorum Libros (c. 1217-1220)
Context: That is better and more valuable which requires fewer, other circumstances being equal, just as that demonstration is better, other circumstances being equal, which necessitates the answering of a smaller number of questions for a perfect demonstration or requires a smaller number of suppositions and premises from which the demonstration proceeds. For if one thing were demonstrated from many and another thing from fewer equally known premisses, clearly that is better which is from fewer because it makes us know quickly, just as a universal demonstration is better than particular because it produces knowledge from fewer premises. Similarly in natural science, in moral science, and in metaphysics the best is that which needs no premisses and the better that which needs the fewer, other circumstances being equal.

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Robert Grosseteste 22

English bishop and philosopher 1175–1253

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