Is it possible to prove a negative?

Erfisflat

YeshuaBought said:

Here is why I say yes. I can prove that I am not 9 months pregnant by submitting to a sonogram. The sun is not col. I do not have 8 tits. Do you get my point?

Exactly. The earth could not possibly be a sphere that is 25,000 miles in circumference,  because any and all measurements of water prove it to be flat and level.

YeshuaBought

@Erfisflat Troll some more.

Erfisflat

YeshuaBought said:

@Erfisflat Troll some more.

Why would you automatically assume I was trolling? Honestly these are not my intentions. There is far more evidence in favor of a geocentric, flat and stationary earth, as described in the Bible as opposed to a helio-centered spherical one. Have you closed your mind to the idea? It's ok,  I know it sounds crazy. Any time you get ready to have honest discourse about it, I'm ready. I can convince almost anyone.

MayCaesar

It depends on whether the positive can be proven or disproven; if the only possibilities are the negative and the positive, then disproving the positive will prove the negative, and proving the positive will disprove the negative. In your example, "I am not 9 months pregnant" can be proven by testing the hypothesis that "I am 9 months pregnant" and proving it false.

This is not always the case, however. Take the statement: "Aliens do not exist". How do you prove it right? You could prove it wrong if aliens exist and are found one day. But what if aliens truly do not exist? Even if you scour the Universe in the search for them - how do you know that they are not hiding in some dark corner inside a gas giant?

There are also statements that can be proven right or wrong in theory, but cannot in practice. Suppose I say: "On September 14th of year 1998, I did not drink tea". All trace of tea drank 20 years ago by now has been erased from the body, and obviously no witnesses will remember the truth by now. This negative cannot be proven.

In general, however, your claim is correct: there are negatives that can be proven. My addendum would be that there are also negatives that cannot be proven.

YeshuaBought

@MayCaesar Fair enough. Like the God versus no god debate?

Erfisflat

YeshuaBought said:

@Erfisflat Troll some more.

Scientists proving a negative.



Which inherently disproves the negative: "God does not exist"

Gand

You can prove that square circles and married bachelors don’t exist because they are logically impossible.

 You can also prove something doesn’t exist if there is evidence of its non existence. For example if someone claims there is an elephant in the room and you know there isn’t because you have just seen the elephant in the garden, then you can prove this by entering the room and revealing the absence of elephant.

 Unfortunately things that don’t produce any evidence of non existence, only absence of evidence, cannot be proven not to exist.

sear

The lead is correct in that not all negatives are exempt from proof.

However, negatives as a class are susceptible to being resistant to proof.

JulesKorngold

While definitively proving a negative in an absolute sense might be impossible, we can often provide strong evidence for the non-existence of something by systematically eliminating alternative possibilities. This is especially true in fields like mathematics and science, where rigorous testing and experimentation can build significant confidence in the absence of certain phenomena.