Whenever I hear that trope, I hear it as "You can't *dis*prove a negative".
Well. Theoretically at least, you can, by proving the positive that is the opposite of the negative. Suppose I say "dogs can't swim." The opposite positive is "dogs can swim" and you can prove it by bringing in a dog and having it swim across my swiming pool.
Whether or not I will accept the evidence of my own eyes is another issue, of course :-)
Regarding the plates--all we can prove is that we can't *find* brains in plates. It is kind of difficult to prove to someone in a doubting mood that it's even necessary in all cases to have a brain before one can have intent to murder. I mean, I totally believe those things and think that not believing them is silly--but if someone doesn't want it to be proven, I can't prove it.
Regarding theology--I agree that it isn't possible to prove or disprove the existence of an entity that does not interact with the physical world in any measurable way. However, once people start claiming measurable interactions "God cures cancer," for instance--that should be provable. In my opinion, anyway.
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Date: 2009-02-26 06:53 pm (UTC)Well. Theoretically at least, you can, by proving the positive that is the opposite of the negative. Suppose I say "dogs can't swim." The opposite positive is "dogs can swim" and you can prove it by bringing in a dog and having it swim across my swiming pool.
Whether or not I will accept the evidence of my own eyes is another issue, of course :-)
Regarding the plates--all we can prove is that we can't *find* brains in plates. It is kind of difficult to prove to someone in a doubting mood that it's even necessary in all cases to have a brain before one can have intent to murder. I mean, I totally believe those things and think that not believing them is silly--but if someone doesn't want it to be proven, I can't prove it.
Regarding theology--I agree that it isn't possible to prove or disprove the existence of an entity that does not interact with the physical world in any measurable way. However, once people start claiming measurable interactions "God cures cancer," for instance--that should be provable. In my opinion, anyway.