Economy as »the science of rationality« deals with the phenomenon of shortage. Knowledge is a scarce commodity, especially in view of aspects of disinformation and asymmetries of information.

 

An early principle of the economy of knowledge is ascribed to Wilhelm von Ockham (1285 to ca. 1349) under the notion of »Occam's razor«:

»entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem« (i.e. the number of entities should not be increased above the necessary measure; or alternatively: »entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitatem«).