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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Feb 5, 2020 23:41:02 GMT
Here are examples of adages that you've heard in one form or other and which are declared to be irrefutable truth - when they're not. 1. Absence Of Evidence Is Not Evidence Of AbsenceAbsence of evidence is evidence of absence only in situation where evidence would be expected. And in the example you cite, this is not the case. Actually, the example he cites is a good one. If you search every home in a neighborhood and find no evidence of a murderer, that is, indeed, evidence the murderer is not in that neighborhood. Reason being that, given the murderer was in that neighborhood, there is a <100% chance of finding no evidence, while if the murderer isn't there there is a 100% chance of finding no evidence. One may argue that's not strong evidence, since maybe the neighborhood is large and there are many places a murderer could hide him/herself and any relevant evidence. The example I give regarding a case where no evidence would be expected even if something was true/existed is whether or not there's life on some extremely distant planet that we can't investigate/know anything about.
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