What does the phrase “you can’t prove a negative” actually mean?
In: 1149
There are various versions of this, but its in essence the idea that the burden of proof is on someone making a claim because proving a negative is immensely hard, or with enough qualifiers impossible.
Most examples are in regards to religion saying there is an all powerful all knowing god that you just cant see or prove, so you have to prove its not there.
In science its also a requirement that something has to be disprovable to even be worthy of considering using the scientific method to try and prove it.
One simple example is that we are talking and i tell you that there is an elephant in your garage, you say no there is no elephant, and i say “prove there isnt”, you can show me your garage and say there isnt an elephant because we cant see it, i say “ah its invisible”, you say even if its invisible we cant smell it, and i say “ah it doesnt have a smell”, you then walk to where i say there is an elephant and you say there is no elephant because you cant touch it and i say “ah its immaterial and cant be touched”
I am now asking you to prove that there isnt an invisible, no smell intangible elephant in your garage, i am providing no evidence for its existence and i have created a scenario its literally impossible to prove it doesnt exist, so does that mean it does? of course not.
Thats what they mean by saying you cant prove a negative, and that the burden of proof is on the person making a claim, because if we swapped it i wouldnt be able to prove there is an elephant like that, so we can dismiss it as non existent.
Latest Answers