Re: New subjectline: Valid and invalid arguments; former: Cocaine in ancient Egypt?

From: Joe Jefferson (jjstrshp_at_mindspring.com)
Date: 01/21/05 

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 19:26:45 GMT

Doug Weller wrote:
>
> Absence of evidence is evidence (indication) of absence.

This is true if and only if the evidence is actually absent. It does not
apply if one has never looked for evidence, or if one does not possess
the ability to find the evidence if it does exist. For example, I can
take the fact that no plastic bottle were found in King Tut's tomb as
evidence that none were buried with him. I could not, however, take the
fact that no microbes have ever been observed on Callisto as evidence
that there aren't any living there, because nobody has ever looked at
Callisto with instruments sensitive enough to detect microbes. 

-- 
Joe of Castle Jefferson
http://www.mindspring.com/~jjstrshp
Site Updated November 25th, 2001
"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the
poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the
hand of the wicked." - Psalm 82:3-4

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