What does the phrase “you can’t prove a negative” actually mean?
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It’s a reference to the idea that it’s generally harder to prove that something didn’t happen, or doesn’t exist, or isn’t true, than proving that something did, or does, or is. Like, it’s probably true that there’s never been an Elephant in my house since it was built, but could I actually prove that definitely? It would be much easier to prove that there had been, because all that would be needed is a single photograph of the elephant incident. I can’t possibly hope to show you photographs of every room of my house on every day since it was built proving definitively that there was never an elephant in any of them
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