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June 25, 2008
On Proving a Negative
John Wilkins at Evolving Thoughts has an abnormally interesting post on proving a negative. Of course, in formal logic it is quite possible to prove a negative, no harder than proving a positive. John also explains where the idea that one can't prove a negative came from. Some of you may remember that I addressed this issue in the context of the game of Minimalist-Maximalist. At that time, I used a discussion of the subject by Steven D. Hales. Please remember that this is formal logic and logicians have proofs. In disciplines that don't' have proofs, those that only have evidence and probabilities, it is just as hard, sometimes harder, to support a positive claim as a negative one.
Posted by Duane Smith at June 25, 2008 9:02 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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