Monday, April 1, 2013
The Burden of Proof
The fallacy I was talking about in class on Tuesday was the burden of proof. The burden of proof should be on the person making the claim. Someone claiming X must give evidence to prove X is true. The fallacy is shifting the burden of proof to the person denying the assertation being made. An example of this fallacy is saying there must be a god because no one has proven otherwise. The quote from the video is, "You don't have any science that can show me that the regression wasn't triggered by the six vaccines." This is a fallacy because the claim is the vaccines cause autism. Rather than finding proof for this claim, the man is saying it must be true becasue science cannot prove it false.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yes, good point. Burden of proof (or at least a reasonable link, if not proof) is important.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting, especially because of all of the recent advances that have been made in the field of science. Just because science cannot prove something right now does not mean that science will never be able to offer an explanation for that something. By claiming that science cannot prove that the vaccines caused autism, this man is not only making the burden of proof fallacy, he is doubting science's ability to provide solutions to answerable questions.
ReplyDelete