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Impossibility theorems often resolve decades or centuries of work spent looking for a solution by proving there is no solution. Proving that something is impossible is usually much harder than the opposite task, as it is often necessary to develop a proof that works in general, rather than to just show a particular example. [1]
Jul 26, 2017 · In general, and putting aside those who misunderstand the concept, when people use the phrase “you can’t prove a negative” they mean: you can’t prove negatives with certainty based on the absence of evidence alone (the absence of evidence is not necessarily the evidence of absence).
Jul 23, 2015 · Proving the negative is impossible in many paradigms, especially in science. In particular, any philosophy which derives from Empiricism runs into trouble proving a negative because one would have to experience everything in the universe to prove that something is not there.
- As noted earlier, it is probably impossible to firmly logically prove there is no Bigfoot, in the same way as Russell's Teapot . However, and this...
- Assume that you and your opponent agree that the positive claim, e.g. "Bigfoot exists", is unprovable. And assume that you consider it a false clai...
- I see two problems here: The first one is that the difficulty of proving "Bigfoot is not an extant creature living in North America" has nothing to...
- In certain scientific fields, negative proofs are possible. For example, in Theoretical Computer Science there's something called "the Halting Prob...
- Negative claims are difficult; to give one example Von Neumann claimed to have proved that hidden-variable theories weren't possible in QM. However...
Evidence of absence is evidence of any kind that suggests something is missing or that it does not exist. What counts as evidence of absence has been a subject of debate between scientists and philosophers. It is often distinguished from absence of evidence .
- Science Writer
- Analysing stars. In his 1842 book The Positive Philosophy, the French philosopher Auguste Comte wrote of the stars: “We can never learn their internal constitution, nor, in regard to some of them, how heat is absorbed by their atmosphere.”
- Meteorites come from space. Astronomers look away now. Throughout the Renaissance and the early development of modern science, astronomers refused to accept the existence of meteorites.
- Heavier-than-air flight. The number of scientists and engineers who confidently stated that heavier-than-air flight was impossible in the run-up to the Wright brothers’ flight is too large to count.
- Space flight. From atmospheric flight, to space flight. The idea that we might one day send any object into space, let alone put men into orbit, was long regarded as preposterous.
Sep 15, 2011 · If "you can't prove a negative" means you can't prove beyond reasonable doubt that certain things don't exist, then the claim is just false. We prove the nonexistence of...
Proving a negative or negative proof may refer to: Proving a negative, in the philosophic burden of proof. Evidence of absence in general, such as evidence that there is no milk in a certain bowl. Modus tollens, a logical proof. Proof of impossibility, mathematics.
