Re: Meaning of Zero and All, Application to archaeology

From: Eric Stevens (eric.stevens_at_sum.co.nz)
Date: 01/28/05 

Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 10:08:45 +1300

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 05:51:35 -0500, "Steve Marcus"
<smarcus_spamout_@cox.net> wrote:

>> No. Nor could you find any refrence to it in Google and, for that
>> matter, neither could I.
>
>So, Eric, I thought that you believe that absence of evidence (that neither
>you nor I could discover in Google) is not evidence of absence. Didn't work
>out to well for you in this instance, did it? Of course, as I recall the
>thing being a beta, for all I know it circulated to maybe ten people. So
>what?

This is not a syllogism. Its a good example of a probablistic world.
You know, the one that Philip has been promoting and I have have long
accepted. Its not an example of the Aristotlian logic which misguided
people misuse when they argue 'absence of evidence is evidence of
absence'.

I will spell it out:

WHEN: you claim to have killfiled me

        BUT:
        (1) you are using a browser with no kill file capability, and
        (2) you claim you are using a plugin for that purpose except
              that
                (a)you can't remember its name.
                (b)you are not quite sure where you got it
                (c)you can't identify it with Google (or whatever)
                AND
                I couldn't:
                (a)identify it with Google (or whatever)
                (b)find anyone who had ever heard of such a plug in

THEN; it probably is that you had no such plugin to give Netscape 4
killfile capabilities.

Notice I don't say that you didn't have it. In this context I say that
you probably didn't have it.

Eric Stevens

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