Did Oskar Pfungst Debunk Clever Hans Mathematical Skills?

In science class or even math class I was told about Clever Hans, the horse that was able to math and tricks. Ever since Clever Hans came into history, more horse owners started to pop up in the news and the internet. On one hand you have Clever Hans being debunked by Oskar Pfungst and on the other you have the question: How did Oskar Pfungst debunk Clever Hans’ mathematical skills. Occam’s razor is pretty much a tool for problem solving, not in a mathematical way, but in terms of logical thinking. Carey states that Occam’s razor was brought about by a philosopher named William of Ockham (2012). Carey also states that William of Ockham’s Occam’s razor explains when a person is trying to figure out a problem, he/she should chose the one that has the fewest
assumptions (2012, p.
44). Occam’s razor is basically telling man that they should pick the simplest way to explain a problem or phenomenon, since that will most likely be the proper answer. Razor means shaving away unnecessary assumptions (Occam’s Razor, 2015), which definitely gives meaning to the whole concept. Now, Clever Hans was owned by Wilhelm von Osten, who was an amateur horse trainer (Clever Hans, 2014) (this probably gave Pfungst an idea for a hypothesis to prove Osten wrong about Clever Hans.), had Hans perform every day leaving people amazed. Occam’s razor, I believe, was the driving force in Oskar’s Pfungst inquisition for a different reason behind Hans’ math abilities. Pfungst was the one who debunked Hans and his abilities through observation, but also testing different ideas. In fact, Pfungst came up with four hypotheses and then tested them out, but only one claim seemed to pop out, which was the owner had trained Hans to answer the questions (Clever Hans, 2014). It seems as though, Hans was
only able to answer questions that were taught him prior going out in public, because when Osten asked Hans a question that he didn’t know, Hans would take some time before he answered. Occam’s razor comes into play here, because Pfungst came up with a simple hypothesis, and used it to get the answer. Pfungst used Occam’s razor version of the scientific method, basically performing tests on logically hypotheses for logically explanations, yet again getting the simplest answer that can be given. Pfungst use of Occam’s razor also went into the background of the horse, the biology of the horse. On the Wikipedia page of Occam’s razor under the biology section it states that, an animal’s activity should not be seen of higher processes, it should be seen at a fairly balanced interpretation (Occam’s Razor, 2015). I believe it means, every animal has their own interpretation of intelligence and we should not put them on the same level. Pfungst interpretation of Clever Hans followed the rule of biology of Occam’s razor. Hans wasn’t put at a higher intelligence nor was he put on a lower intelligence. Pfungst had kept him at an area where he knew that majority of horse were at, if they were not trained. The simple explanation that was given by Pfungst, is sort of a simple truth, which of course no one seemed to listen to. It seems that since Occam’s razor came from a natural philosopher, we are to look at the world and things around us logically and simple. For instance, after Pfungst debunked Clever Hans and his owner, he seemed to see that there were a lot of people who also trained their animals. Once we see the one true explanation for the hypothesis given, then we see it to be true with any other object/people/animal that faces that explanation. Between Pfungst and Occam’s razor, anyone can take the ideas and explanations given and figure out the simple truth of what is going on.