Questions tagged [evidence]
The evidence tag has no usage guidance.
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What constitutes evidence in philosophy?
I have noticed an apparent confusion when posing and answering questions as to what constitutes evidence in philosophy. Especially in scientifically-related areas, I often cite scientific evidence ...
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Are we too quick to assume that the most recent evidence is inevitably the strongest?
In what contexts is this true and in what contexts can this be considered true and vice versa? Personally, I think it has a lot to do with confirmation bias, especially in natural sciences where for ...
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Is there Zaltaesque abstract evidence for Zaltaesque abstract objects?
Suppose that there are evidentiary objects, objects that are evidence for things. For a horrible example, suppose that an unusually placed corpse might be evidence of foul play. Generally, per the SEP ...
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What philosophers have touched upon the inability to qualify data as being representative of evidence in support of a scientific theory?
As a scientist and philosopher, I've increasingly noticed a failure in my learnings related to how data may be qualified as evidence in support of a theory. It appears that in any effort to qualify ...
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If something keeps happening, is it always better evidence?
Suppose that you get a prank call, not once but 100 times. Is their frequency good reason to think that the evidence they have been faked (it's someone else) is less convincing and/or the evidence ...
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Is absence of evidence evidence of absence in the case of god or not? [duplicate]
I know that this is a common question but the question is usually posed in a generic context. I’m interested in whether this principle applies specifically to god. I’ve seen philosophers talk about ...
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Why is Time Cube wrong?
Time Cube was a pseudoscientific theory from a crank. It is generally believed by the scientific community that there is no meaningful theory which can be isolated from the Time Cube corpus.
In debate,...
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How does one “measure” the plausibility of theories with no direct evidence?
Let’s take the event of a leaf falling down from a branch. Currently, we have a fully naturalistic explanation for how this happens.
Theoretically though, one can come up with an infinite number of ...
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Is having no good reason to believe something the same as having no evidence?
What exactly does it mean to not have evidence of something? Is it functionally and exactly equivalent to having no reason to believe in something?
Let us take the example of God. Let us now imagine ...
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What criteria determines if a proposition is mathematical or empirical?
It seems that there is a distinction between mathematical vs empirical statements.
For example, consider the proposition “All even numbers greater than two are a sum of two prime numbers.” This ...
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How does one know if X is evidence of Y?
How does one know if X is evidence of Y? If one cannot think of a reason as to why X implies Y, is this the same as saying that X is evidence of Y?
For example, clearly, if I see a plane, that isn’t ...
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Help working out the believability of some evidence
Suppose I have some evidence of where I was while a crime was being committed, a recording of me visiting a bank and asking for the time of a transaction (which was completed at that time elsewhere). ...
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How does one differentiate between different theories that each seem to have no evidence?
Before the DNA molecule was observed or had any predictive or explanatory power, anyone could have said that there is no evidence for it if it was simply proposed. However, the notion of a molecule ...
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Is there a moral dilemma in democide studies?
Accusing a regime or other political organization of mass killing can be a fairly effective way of riling people up. But a lot of the relevant statistics seem lacking in direct support; we don't often ...
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Is there such a thing as weak evidence?
I recently came upon a video by a YouTuber named Alex O’ Connor who talks about how you can have evidence that increases your credence in a claim but not enough to “push it” over 50%. For anyone who’s ...
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Shouldn’t every claim require the same amount of evidence? [closed]
There is a common adage that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. A common example is of someone telling you that they watered their plants which you would reasonably believe since it’...
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Is the idea of weak and strong evidence incoherent?
Hypotheses are either true or not. Justin is either a murderer or not. There is either a God or not.
If statements are either true or false, how can it be the case that certain forms of evidence ...
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Why can't we have a tighter definition of what makes something necessary?
Why can’t we define 'necessary' tighter, by making it include empirical evidence of such a statement?
Everything that is agreed to be necessarily can be empirically verified. For example, if we put ...
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Do judges violate due process in their efforts to make a logical connection between would-be evidence and facts in question?
Note: I had this post with a question that follows, but then I reformed the question again. I've used ChatGPT to help me research this issue, and I think it has been somewhat helpful.
For anyone ...
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Does the idea of "some" or "better" evidence for something make sense? [closed]
What does it mean to say that there's more evidence for A than there is for B? Or for there to be some evidence for A but not enough? Shouldn't evidence either be enough or not? Any standard you use ...
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Is there a principle in philosophy that tells you not to look at evidence in isolation?
Suppose one is testing whether or not a person is a psychic who says that God has given him special powers. He guesses a number between 1 to 10 that you’re thinking of where you try to think of a ...
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Can a coincidence be evidence of a god?
If I experience a coincidence or a coincidence happens in the world that seems to be at extremely low odds, does this imply that God exists? If it doesn’t imply that God exists, can it at least make ...
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What is the correct level of plausibility one should have with God? [closed]
This part is confusing me for a bit and I’m having trouble finding a correct answer to it.
Say you are an atheist and are playing a poker game and you get dealt two straight Royal flushes. You ...
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Artificial intelligence ChatGPT said that solipsism is true. Any evidence of solipsism?
A user on Reddit was told by the artificial intelligence ChatGPT that solipsism is true. Why did he say that?
Is there any evidence of solipsism that ChatGPT knows about?
Should ChatGPT be trusted or ...
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How does one solve this paradox of independent probability?
There seems to be a paradox in my head when it comes to evaluating independent probabilities and it's sort of boggling my head. I am curious as to how to solve it.
Suppose I tell my friend to think of ...
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How do you decide between general and specific evidence in reasoning?
Suppose Jane wins the lottery three times. A person could say "well the chances of some person winning the lottery three times in the entire history of the world is expected by chance. No need to ...
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Is what's considered evidence for something ultimately subjective?
Imagine we are trying to conclude whether or not one someone is a prophet. How much evidence will we need to conclude this? Is the answer to this ultimately subjective?
For example, if John makes no ...
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What is more convincing a vague but true prophecy or no prophecy
Suppose you have two people, Adam and John.
Adam makes a prediction: A catastrophic event will happen in 2025.
John makes no prediction
Now suppose world war 3 happens in 2025
Is the probability that ...
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Given a positive ontological claim X, is not-X the default position?
Given a positive ontological claim X, I see at least four different subjective positions one could adopt regarding X:
I believe that the evidence provides persuasive reason to believe that X is true (...
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Can the simplicity of a hypothesis be objectively measured?
When two or more hypotheses can explain the same evidence, it's commonly affirmed that simpler hypotheses should be preferred over more complex ones.
For example, in response to my previous question ...
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Is there an objective standard of sufficient evidence?
It's very common to hear people say that we should only believe claims that are supported by sufficient evidence. Intuitively it seems to make sense, until we realize that this recommendation begs ...
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Epistemic value of multiple eyewitness accounts: single event vs. multiple events given a fixed number of eyewitnesses?
Intuitively speaking, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a single event are more convincing than a single eyewitness account. For example, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a loud ...
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Are all beliefs ultimately rooted in faith?
For the purpose of this question let 'belief' mean anything a person accepts to be true for whatever reason - in particular if someone 'knows' something they also 'believe' in it.
I read this old ...
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Is a supernatural entity or existence constricted by the necessity of evidence?
It's a fact that natural existences are constricted by the necessity of evidence. Meaning evidence is necessary to prove an natural existence or natural occurrence, and if there's is no evidence the ...
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How do philosophers answer a question like 'How do you know something exists?'
I recently watched a video from Rationality Rules titled "The Argument from Personal Experience - Debunked (Why Personal Experiences are NOT Proof)". As the title reveals, the video's goal ...
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How would an philosopher and scientist solve the following kidnapping - scenario?
I would like to hear your opinion as philosophers and scientists regarding how you would solve the problem of proof in the following scenario:
"Plato" who has dementia and a damaged left ...
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Is the concept of 'evidence' inherently subjective, and how does that impact the definition of 'faith'?
Claiming that something is 'evidence' of something else requires a mind observing, interpreting and coming to that conclusion. Isn't this a subjective process? If so, does this mean that the concept ...
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Are extraordinary first-hand subjective accounts more likely to be true the more people report the same experience?
For illustrative purposes, let's take as an example the following claim X = "I went to sleep, but then I suddenly woke up at 3:00 a.m. feeling a terrifying evil presence, and then my bed began to ...
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What's the difference between Justification and Evidence?
Q: In what ways does use of the term "Evidence" differ from that of the term "Justification" in philosophy?
Ive read Evidence posed as the internalist counterpoint to the ...
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two problems with the (log) likelihood measure of evidentiary support [closed]
This is basically a reference request. I'm looking for literature on the two types of counter-example to the log likelihood measure of support for hypotheses which I discuss below.
First some ...
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Varieties of Evidentialism (Prudential, Moral, Epistemic)
re section 5 of this SEP https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-belief/#VarEvi
I understand each has different aims, but I dont see how does the meaning of evidence and Evidentialism change in each ...
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How can a finite number of observations justify confidence in complex theories
First I'll tell you a bit about how (at least modern) software development works to clarify what I mean by a "test". I'll also narrow the scope to a very particular kind of test known as block box ...
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Is a fallacy involved in perceiving the solution to a long-standing problem as simple and straightforward?
In university (or, school) we're often presented with a problem, and directly afterwards, the solution is presented. Quite often, the solutions presented for a given problem seem painfully obvious, ...
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Why do I accept some inconsequential claims as "obviously true" without evidence? E.g. "Most people don't like to be hit on the head with a hammer."
There are certain claims that I accept as obviously true without (much) evidence. For example:
Most people don't like to be hit on the head with a hammer.
Donald Trump ate dinner some time last week....
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How "repeatable" does empirical evidence need to be?
To start, I am a proponent of empiricism but feel like I stumbled into a flaw.
How come we only accept what we can repeat? ..and how often do I need to be able to repeat to the same conclusion for me ...
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How does the philosophy of science explore original research formulation?
Although rarely admitted or communicated, in scientific research it's quite common to change the originally formulated question once insurmountable obstacles have made an answer difficult or ...
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What is the name of the fallacy involving white and black swans?
If one argues:
I have seen only white swans, therefore there are no black swans.
What would this fallacy be called?
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