In German, both “proof“ and “evidence“ translate to “Beweis“ which only has one single meaning – if something is “bewiesen“ then it is true and a fact. In English, I see the word “evidence“ used a lot for stuff that is obviously neither true nor fact. I’ve looked it up and don’t really see a difference between the meanings of “proof“ and “evidence“ – can anyone please ELI5?
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Proof requires evidence, but not all evidence constitutes proof. Proof is a fact that demonstrates something to be real or true. Evidence is information that might lead one to believe something to be real or true.
In general use, proof is something that shows something is true – to whatever standard of proof is relevant in the context – while evidence is something that suggests it is true. Put together, multiple pieces of evidence can be proof.
For example:
“This video of you in the museum is proof you were there.”
“The fact you have a museum guide book is evidence you were at the museum.”
Or:
“The discovery of the beaks of giant squid in the stomachs of sperm whales is proof that the whales eat giant squid.”
“Sucker marks from giant squid on sperm whales is evidence that the whales hunt and eat giant squid.”
Proof is a concept. For example, you have a Proof for a mathematical theorem, and that’s a logical argument.
Evidence is something you physically show to other people to prove the truth of a claim. They’re usually used interchangeably, because evidence is generally the proof of truth.
But sometimes evidence only supports proof, if it’s a like a correlation “he was here, so he couldn’t have been on the scene of the crime”. The proof here is the concept of “not being in two places at once”. Evidence is the record of being in one place. But the evidence doesn’t PROVE he wasn’t in the other, not without establishing it’s impossible first.
So say, you’re claiming to have a mathematical proof, but no one believes you. You have to show them evidence, i.e. the proof written down. The Proof is the conceptual proof of the correct idea, the evidence is physical proof you’re not lying about it.
Evidence establishes credence or likelihood. The more evidence you have of a certain thing/event, the more likely you are to believe that thing/event is true. But evidence is not proof and credence is not certainty.
A proof is usually (mathematics etc) a logical argument that is irrefutable (if the argument is done properly). In a sense, if you can prove something mathematically, then evidence is unnecessary – a “truth” has been demonstrated.
Now in normal semantic use, the standard for “proof” is less absolute and the word might be used with a weaker meaning. In law, for example, to “prove guilt” in a criminal case is to establish something “beyond reasonable doubt” (US centric). In science, physicists might use a statistical five sigma standard as sufficient to prove a discovery (5 sigma means that a result has less than 1 in a million chance of occurring if that discovery is not true)
Is German your first language?
“Proof” cannot be denied, while “evidence” can be argued with. Evidence is anything that someone presents in order to further an argument. If someone tells you that you’re not cool because you listen to Coldplay, their evidence for you not being cool is the fact that you listen to Coldplay. If you actually don’t even listen to Coldplay, this is still their evidence. That’s all evidence means in an argumentative context.
Sometimes people just say “evidence” when they mean “good evidence.” If you present unconvincing evidence, people will say that you have “weak evidence,” and if you present incredibly unconvincing evidence they will say that you have “no evidence.”
“Evidence” fundamentally means “the clear sign of something.” It’s anything that indicates something else, or that somebody claims indicates something else.
Hmm, I wouldn’t say that in German there is only „Beweis“ as translation for proof and evidence. Intuitively I’d pair „Beweis“ with „proof“, and „evidence“ with „Nachweis“, more or less.
Like for example a sentence „there is evidence for water on Mars“, I’d translate it with „auf dem Mars wurde Wasser nachgewiesen“. But of course it’s very finicky to match the precise meaning/translation.
If you’ve got *proof* of something, that implies that it’s definitely true.
Evidence suggests that something is true, but doesn’t prove it.
If I have proof that you killed someone, then you definitely killed them. If I have evidence you killed someone, then it’s more likely to be you than it was before, but it could still be someone else. Like, say, if your fingerprints are found at a crime scene, that’s evidence that you did the crime, because it means you were there, but it’s not proof, because you could have been there for innocent reasons. Whereas video of you committing the crime would be proof that you did it.
Evidence is something that could be used to figure something out. It isn’t necessarily enough to know the truth, but it helps.
Proof is evidence and/or logic that shows that something is definitely true.
A fact is something that exists or that happened.
*The fact is that at the old insane asylum, I walked in on a man holding a bloody knife above an unresponsive woman’s body.*
Evidence is a fact or object that logically implies that another fact is probably true or that another event probably happened.
*If I hadn’t been making a video of my exploration of the old asylum, I might not have had any evidence of what I saw, other than my own testimony.*
Proof has different definitions in different contexts, but in general, proof is evidence that’s so overwhelmingly suggestive of a fact, that a reasonable person can’t argue rationally against it.
*The proof that no crime was committed, was when the woman got up and said “Excuse me, we’re filming a horror movie here, could you please leave?”*
So there can be facts without evidence, and evidence that isn’t proof.
Evidence supports what you are trying to prove, but if the evidence can be explained by another sequence of events or factors, it’s not proof.
Proof requires evidence, but evidence is not proof.
I say it just rained, and I provide the evidence that the ground it wet, does that prove it rained? No, because someone could have taken a hose and sprayed the ground.
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