{"id":7621,"date":"2014-10-26T18:04:43","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T18:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/10\/26\/peter-van-inwagen-on-burden-of-proof-in-philosophy\/"},"modified":"2014-10-26T18:04:43","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T18:04:43","slug":"peter-van-inwagen-on-burden-of-proof-in-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/10\/26\/peter-van-inwagen-on-burden-of-proof-in-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter van Inwagen on Burden of Proof in Philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Bailey<\/a> sends the following quotations for our delectation:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
"(When a philosopher says, "The burden of the proof lies on you", he means, "You must deduce your conclusion from the truths of immediate sensory experience by means of an argument that is formally valid according to the rules of elementary logic; I on the other hand may employ any dialectical tactic I find expedient".)"<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
-PvI, An Essay on Free Will<\/em>, p.18<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
"Where does the burden of proof lie in a philosophical debate? In a debate of the type we are imagining, the answer is clear–in fact, trivial. The burden of proof lies on the person who's trying to prove something to someone."<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
-PvI, The Problem of Evil<\/em>, p.46<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
Notice that the thesis encoded in the second is a little different (and much more plausible) than "he who asserts must prove".<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I'd have to examine the context, but the second quotation seems to support what I was saying yesterday<\/a>, namely, that burden-of-proof considerations have no non-trivial role to play in philosophical discussions. <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
It is quite otherwise in the law, which is where we get the notion of burden of proof (BOP) and the correlative notion of defeasible presumption (DP).  As N. Rescher remarks (Presumption and the Practices of Tentative Cognition<\/em>, p. 13),  both are at root legal conceptions dating back to Roman law.  Now court-room proceedings are essentially both practical and adversarial:  what is in dispute is not a matter of theory, but a matter bearing upon such things as a person's wealth and liberty.  Thus it makes perfect sense that the BOP should be placed on the plaintiff in a civil case and the state in a criminal case, which is equivalent to granting to the accused a defeasible presumption of innocence.  The onus probandi<\/em> rests on those who make allegations.  Thus it makes sense within the law<\/em> to maintain that<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
\n
Necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui dicit non ei qui negat.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
The need for proof lies with him who affirms, not him who denies.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
Now to my way of thinking, philosophy-as-inquiry is never adversarial, and is primarily theoretical.  This is part of my reason for thinking that the fundamentally legal notions of BOP and DP ought not be imported into philosophy-as-inquiry.  It strikes me as very clear that one who makes an accusation bears the burden of proof.  But it is not so clear that one who makes an assertion bears a burden of proof.  <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Indeed, it is either false or meaningless. For if van Inwagen asserts that there are no modes of being, and I assert that there are, then we both make assertions.  So if he who asserts bears a burden of proof, then we both bear the burden of proof — which trivializes the very notion of BOP.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
So I am skeptical about the importation of the fundamentally legal concept of BOP from that essentially adversarial and practical dialectical context into philosophy-as-inquiry.  But this is a complicated topic.  I'll say some more tomorrow.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Comments are enabled!<\/span><\/div>\n
\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>Are Burden-of-Proof Considerations Relevant in Philosophy?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Bailey sends the following quotations for our delectation: "(When a philosopher says, "The burden of the proof lies on you", he means, "You must deduce your conclusion from the truths of immediate sensory experience by means of an argument that is formally valid according to the rules of elementary logic; I on the other … Continue reading “Peter van Inwagen on Burden of Proof in Philosophy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451,20,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-burden-of-proof","category-metaphilosophy","category-reason-and-rationality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}