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Shifting the burden of proof (view source)
Revision as of 00:31, March 12, 2015
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'''Shifting the burden of proof''' is an effort to free [[hypothesis]] or persuasive [[argument]] in debate from [[burden of proof]] by shifting it onto opponent. The critic is deliberately placed in the position of trying to prove negative with respect to original assertive statement. Often it is associated with the blurring of the issue and hiding the true speculative character of hypothesis in order to confuse opponents untrained in logical argumentation. According to sound [[science]], the theorist making a historically important claim must assume the responsibility of [[scientific proof|proof]], not the critic.<ref name="Hedtke">{{cite book
|author=Randal Hedtke
|title=Secrets of the Sixth Edition
|publisher=Master Books
|place=Portland, Oregon
|year=2010
|pages=26-27, 111
|isbn=978-0-89051-597-6
|url= }}</ref> Serious scientists publish their [[scientific evidence|evidence]] in scientific papers and these include central argument, together with the data that supports it. These requirements are a matter of principle at scientific journals.<ref name="DeniableDarwin">{{cite book
|author=David Berlinski
|title=The Deniable Darwin
|publisher=Discovery Institute Press
|location=Seattle, USA
|year=2009
|pages=414-415
|chapter=Denying Darwin: David Berlinski & Critics
|isbn=978-0-9790141-2-3
|url=http://www.davidberlinski.org/deniable-darwin/about.php
|quote}}</ref><br>
In other words, especially in a lawsuit, shifting the burden of proof is the transfer of the obligation to prove particular facts from one party to the other.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Law dictionary: shifting the burden of proof |publisher=http://www.enacademic.com/ |url=http://law.academic.ru/3241/shifting_the_burden_of_proof |acessdate=12 March 2015}}</ref>
==Notable Examples==
===[[Evolutionism]]===
Shifting the burden of proof onto their critics is a common approach among partisans of [[evolutionism]], for example, [[Darwin]] stated in 1937: ''“…why to be sure there were a thousand intermediate forms. — Opponent will say. Show them me. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between bulldog and greyhound.”''<ref>{{cite web
|author=Darwin, C. R.
|title=Notebook B: [Transmutation of species (1837-1838)]
|publisher=Darwin Online
|url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=219&itemID=CUL-DAR121.-&viewtype=side
|accessdate=12 March 2015
}}</ref> Another evolutionist, [[Alfred Russel Wallace|A.R. Wallace]], after reading Darwin’s statement asserting that useful variations may ''“occur in the course of thousands of generations”'', warned him that such expression may give his opponents the advantage to consider the favorable variations a rare accidents or even never occurring at all. Thus, Wallace advises Darwin to overcome the scientific weakness of his argument by putting the burden of proof to his opponents.<ref>{{cite book
|author= James Marchant
|title= Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences (Complete)
|volume=1
|publisher= Library of Alexandria
|year=1916
|pages=142-143
|isbn= 978-1465528643
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0IF1K9IYQYMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:#v=onepage&q=%22I%20would%20put%20the%22&f=false |quote=Such expression gives your opponent the advantage of assuming that favorable variations are rare accidents, or even for long periods may never occur at all and thus [the] argument would appear to many to have great force. I would put the burden of proof on my opponent so show that any one organ, structure, or faculty, does not vary, even during one generation… }}</ref>
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Legal Terms]]
[[Category:Logical Fallacies]]
[[Category:Rhetoric]]
|author=Randal Hedtke
|title=Secrets of the Sixth Edition
|publisher=Master Books
|place=Portland, Oregon
|year=2010
|pages=26-27, 111
|isbn=978-0-89051-597-6
|url= }}</ref> Serious scientists publish their [[scientific evidence|evidence]] in scientific papers and these include central argument, together with the data that supports it. These requirements are a matter of principle at scientific journals.<ref name="DeniableDarwin">{{cite book
|author=David Berlinski
|title=The Deniable Darwin
|publisher=Discovery Institute Press
|location=Seattle, USA
|year=2009
|pages=414-415
|chapter=Denying Darwin: David Berlinski & Critics
|isbn=978-0-9790141-2-3
|url=http://www.davidberlinski.org/deniable-darwin/about.php
|quote}}</ref><br>
In other words, especially in a lawsuit, shifting the burden of proof is the transfer of the obligation to prove particular facts from one party to the other.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Law dictionary: shifting the burden of proof |publisher=http://www.enacademic.com/ |url=http://law.academic.ru/3241/shifting_the_burden_of_proof |acessdate=12 March 2015}}</ref>
==Notable Examples==
===[[Evolutionism]]===
Shifting the burden of proof onto their critics is a common approach among partisans of [[evolutionism]], for example, [[Darwin]] stated in 1937: ''“…why to be sure there were a thousand intermediate forms. — Opponent will say. Show them me. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between bulldog and greyhound.”''<ref>{{cite web
|author=Darwin, C. R.
|title=Notebook B: [Transmutation of species (1837-1838)]
|publisher=Darwin Online
|url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=219&itemID=CUL-DAR121.-&viewtype=side
|accessdate=12 March 2015
}}</ref> Another evolutionist, [[Alfred Russel Wallace|A.R. Wallace]], after reading Darwin’s statement asserting that useful variations may ''“occur in the course of thousands of generations”'', warned him that such expression may give his opponents the advantage to consider the favorable variations a rare accidents or even never occurring at all. Thus, Wallace advises Darwin to overcome the scientific weakness of his argument by putting the burden of proof to his opponents.<ref>{{cite book
|author= James Marchant
|title= Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences (Complete)
|volume=1
|publisher= Library of Alexandria
|year=1916
|pages=142-143
|isbn= 978-1465528643
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0IF1K9IYQYMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:#v=onepage&q=%22I%20would%20put%20the%22&f=false |quote=Such expression gives your opponent the advantage of assuming that favorable variations are rare accidents, or even for long periods may never occur at all and thus [the] argument would appear to many to have great force. I would put the burden of proof on my opponent so show that any one organ, structure, or faculty, does not vary, even during one generation… }}</ref>
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Legal Terms]]
[[Category:Logical Fallacies]]
[[Category:Rhetoric]]