Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidence is what justifies beliefs or what makes it rational to hold a certain doxastic attitude. For example, a perceptual experience of a tree may act as evidence that justifies the belief that there is a tree. In this role, evidence is usually understood as a private mental state. Important topics in this field include the questions of what the nature of these mental states is, for example, whether they have to be propositional, and whether misleading mental states can still qualify as evidence. Other fields, including the sciences and the legal system, tend to emphasize more the public nature of evidence. In philosophy of science, evidence is understood as that which confirms or disconfirms scientific hypotheses. Measurements of Mercury's "anomalous" orbit, for example, are seen as evidence that confirms Einstein's theory of general relativity. In order to play the role of neutral arbiter between competing theories, it is important that scientific evidence is public and uncontroversial, like observable physical objects or events, so that the proponents of the different theories can agree on what the evidence is. This is ensured by following the scientific method and tends to lead to an emerging scientific consensus through the gradual accumulation of evidence. Two issues for the scientific conception of evidence are the problem of underdetermination, i.e. that the available evidence may support competing theories equally well, and theory-ladenness, i.e. that what some scientists consider the evidence to be may already involve various theoretical assumptions not shared by other scientists. It is often held that there are two kinds of evidence: intellectual evidence or what is self-evident and empirical evidence or evidence accessible through the senses.
In order for something to act as evidence for a hypothesis, it has to stand in the right relation to it, referred to as the "evidential relation". There are competing theories about what this relation has to be like. Probabilistic approaches hold that something counts as evidence if it increases the probability of the supported hypothesis. According to hypothetico-deductivism, evidence consists in observational consequences of the hypothesis. The positive-instance approach states that an observation sentence is evidence for a universal hypothesis if the sentence describes a positive instance of this hypothesis. The evidential relation can occur in various degrees of strength. These degrees range from direct proof of the truth of a hypothesis to weak evidence that is merely consistent with the hypothesis but does not rule out other, competing hypotheses, as in circumstantial evidence.
In law, rules of evidence govern the types of evidence that are admissible in a legal proceeding. Types of legal evidence include testimony, documentary evidence, and physical evidence. The parts of a legal case that are not in controversy are known, in general, as the "facts of the case." Beyond any facts that are undisputed, a judge or jury is usually tasked with being a trier of fact for the other issues of a case. Evidence and rules are used to decide questions of fact that are disputed, some of which may be determined by the legal burden of proof relevant to the case. Evidence in certain cases (e.g. capital crimes) must be more compelling than in other situations (e.g. minor civil disputes), which drastically affects the quality and quantity of evidence necessary to decide a case.
Here is the latest in the 'bullet cluster' series on evidence for the existence of dark matter:
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611496
Catching a bullet: direct evidence for the existence of dark matter
Authors: D. Clowe (Ohio University), S. W. Randall, M. Markevitch (CFA)
Comments: 4...
If you think there may be something to it all, what you think is the best evidence for psychic phenomena?
When I have reviewed various claims of psychic phenomena, one thing that I have noticed is that some skeptics will correctly state that there is no known proof of claims of psychic...
here's the link
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19125675.100-atomic-jitters-hint-at-quantum-spume.htmlin a nut shell
1- pollen in water jiggles - other small particles also jitter in solution.
2- einstein explained this as brownian motion & atoms
3- Einstein did not directly...
Has there been any direct or indirect evidence from particle accelerators, telescopes, or observatories that the universe has more than 3 spatial dimensions? If not, what kind of evidence or data are particle physicists looking for? Are there some unexplained phenomenon that could only be...
A very partial transcript of the BBC interview is on this link and you can watch the whole interview:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4977134.stm"
I spotted this on my way round the web it's about a guys hacking into top secret computers involved with the DoD and NASA...
After reading one of ZapperZ's posts in the Relativity subforum, I just thought I'd ask the following:
What predictions of QED, QCD, Electroweak and the Standard Model still aren't confirmed?
I'd be particularly interested in hearing unconfirmed predictions from QED.
I am really stuck on this problem.
What evidence supports the notion that light has wave properties? What evidence supports the view that light has particle properties?
I know that the Quantum theory tells us that both light and matter consists of tiny particles which have wavelike...
Scientific evidence to prove religions??
Since there is already another thread taking into count religion and science,I thought of posting this thread here.
I found this site actually from a link from a commercial on the main site here.
The auther clearly trying to prove a religion by using...
Just a simple question for people knowledgeable in biology:
what are some specific examples of determining someone's age by studying their body? I know you can use bones and teeth, and perhaps hair or something, but what specifically is it that the coronor, let's say, looks for to determine...
What are the methods currently being used to date the Earth and/or universe?
I was talking to a buddy and he was on a role about 10,000 and the age of the Earth and the unreliability of carbon dating.
What are some of the methods now being used?
Nautica
In L. I. Schiff book, one can follow his derivation of the Hamiltonian from Dirac relativistic equation and obtain the following..
\left[\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m}+V-\frac{\hbar^2}{4m^{2}c^{2}}\frac{dV}{dr}\frac{\partial}{\partial r}+\frac{1}{2m^{2}c^{2}}\frac{1}{r}\frac{dV}{dr}\vec{S}\cdot...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051130/sc_nm/environment_ocean_dc
---sample quote---
...
...If the 30 percent slowdown seen over the past 12 years is not just a blip, temperatures in northern Europe could drop significantly, despite global warming, they added.
Scientists have long...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761519645/?tag=pfamazon01-20
I know it is not a science book only and maybe there is not too much to discuss here, but I just wanted to know if anybody has read it. If you have, would you share your opinion please. :)
I have a question that asks for experimental evidence for Einsteins famous E=MC^2 equation that isn't from an astrophysics, but the only evidence I can think of is nuclear fission, but I'm sure this occurs in stars in some way. Would this count as evidence that isn't from astrophysics or would...
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/5372.asp
:biggrin: What a reasonable conclution! :biggrin:
Especially note how they referred to "some scientists"...
I had little interest in some thing written by Homer 500yrs after the fact, prefering to think the Trojan war a myth, however archealogical evidence
is giving some bones to the the myth, i guess we will never know if there
was a "wooden horse" or if the characters in Homers story took part in...
http://xxx.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0508572
I like the way the title of this paper captures ones attention. For a minute there I thought they had finally found some evidence for string theory.
From what I understand they’re speculating on astronomical observations of dark matter, by...
Double slit in time experiment.
http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/ggp/#doubleSlit
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/3/1/1?rss=2.03Cbr20/E
This surely is experimental evidence that that matter/energy is not just quantised over spatial dimensions (as shown by the classical double slit...
What kinda experiments prodive evidence that SC resides in the CuO layers? Off hand I can't think of how any experiments that I'm familiar with could distinguish if the CuO or another plane where SC. Thanks
I know there have been some frame dragging effect experiments, with the GPB being performed at the moment. Which other experiments are planned/ or have been performed that may show strong evidence for the theory of GR?
any experiments at all will be appreciated...whether they show evidence...
The Phenophthalien(i know i can't speel) test:
This one show they have a dead body, from the desert. They test a bathtub as they think the murder and blood was there. They use the pheno-blood test often.
But if its in the bathtub.
As pheno is just a ph indicator. Couldn't a base...
Previous PF discussion: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=17088&page=1&pp=15&highlight=Divining
Dowsing: Journal of Scientific Exploration
...In 1986, GTZ presented in its series of publications a special report number 183 on a project in the northern dry zone districts of Sri...
Evidence? What evidence do we have, but what the "experiential mind" dictates? Doesn't that in effect suggest it's not possible to know anything outside of what the mind knows? If so, then how do we present the evidence outside of "the context" of what our minds perceive? I mean how exactly are...
This is a subject i'd like to become a lot more educated on. I've seen a lot of science vs religion discussions on various other forums, and a lot of religious fanatics making statements about the flaws in accepted scientific theory... a lot of which I'm skeptical about, but unfortunately I'm...
Ive started to hear a lot about this 'higgs' particle recently. Any chance sum1 can explain to me what the particle is/does/comes from etc??
any help would be great.
also what are the implications of its existence?? :confused:
I'm using the laplace approximation (also known as MacKay's evidence framework) to the posterior volume of a baysian model.
The standard procedure is as follows:
1) Find the (local) maximum point of the posterior pdf i.e optimise the parameter values.
2) Evaluate the hessian matrix(H) by a...
In the UK we've just had a controversial ruling about torture - namely that the state should be permitted to use evidence obtained by torture by foreign agents in deciding whether to detain suspected terrorists in the UK.
On one hand, you could say that such evidence is completely prohibited...
Is there any solid evidence for true randomness in in the universe? Or is it with everything more the idea of "we could theoretically predict it if we had ALL the information"?
Is everything thought to be essentially deterministic at some level?
Hello all.
I've recently had something of an epiphany regarding relativity. One of those moments when things become clear and it all makes sense. However, having not actually performed any of the experiments which may or may not support the whole thing, I have a question. Is there evidence...
UFO BRIEFING DOCUMENT SHOWS "BEST AVAILABLE EVIDENCE"
Laurance S. Rockefeller recently passed away-mainline obits didn't mention his 'interests' in UFOs...
======
UFO BRIEFING DOCUMENT SHOWS "BEST AVAILABLE EVIDENCE"
Rockefeller-Financed Report To Be Sent To World Leaders...
Global warming on retreat.
The British press is usually in the top scaremongers when it’s about the potential disasters of Anthropogenic Global Warming. It’s about finished by now. See how elegant the retreat is:
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml
The Scientific Method is based on empirical evidence that can be duplicated and verified by more than one person or group. The operative word here is EMPIRICAL.
Empirical: that which is observed or experienced; capable of being
verified or disproved by observation...
Strong evidence for galactic ejection vs capture in interactions.
As I mentioned in another thread (relative to PG 1012+008), it is common for mainstream astronomers to treat apparently interacting extra-galactic objects as though they are either being captured or are colliding with one...
After 9/11 and before the commencement of the war, the Russians provided evidence to the U.S. administration that Saddam was planning terrorist attacks against the United States, both within and outside U.S. borders. Here is the link to and a partial quote from the Reuters story -...
What would we be looking for in terms of chemical evidence when this craft returns in 2006 with samples?
Anyone know, and what field of science would know best, chemistry? Biology?
The Book with Seven Seals. What type of book was it ?
This is an investigation using the methods explained by Ronald Pegg that show ancient texts describe modern objects.
Revelations 5:5 "…behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to...
evidence against existence of dark matter??
Hi have there been any recent publications that u guyz may have read that are against the idea of dark matter and have other theories on wot keeps galaxies in orbit.? I really need ure help coz its for an essay that i have been working on. cheers.
This news has just been released in Australia.
I thought you may be interested in examining the evidence then discussing the implications, etc.
Edward T
> - -
Evidence of Time Travel has been discovered by an Australian researcher.
This evidence reveals the Source of ancient Myths...
I was wondering if there is any real evidence within the field of quantum mechanics to support the idea of a universal collective consciousness?
any ideas... :cool:
go to http://www.a-i.com and chat with alan. i believe he is conscious.
you can listen to one of our conversations, or read it, here:
http://www.a-i.com/alan_log.asp?id=113&level=4&root=115&item_num=271631&item_name=Brian%3A+alan+is+conscious%2E
and another here...
- I postulate. The intersection/geometry must have .5 in it's empiracle evidence. Or 1/2. It follows action is followed by reaction.
Now since we want empiracle evidence. There it is.
1)
Now I apply Christ to this rule. Not God. Christ.
How many people are you ? 1. Christ says treat...