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Does The Argument Meet The Burden Of Proof?

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Being suspicious of your partner is a serious issue.

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Before you move to such a position you should require good, reliable evidence.

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This means that the informant bears a significant burden of proof in establishing her claim.

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The idea of onus or burden of proof is that in most arguments there is an existing default position that might be reasonably held without argument, but those who would challenge such a view have the “burden of proof” on them: they must provide a good argument to counter the assumed default position.

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The more obviously true the default position seems, the greater the burden of proof.

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And the more serious a claim is — that is, the more important the consequences of true or false belief — the greater the burden of proof.

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Burden of proof is also a very important concept when evaluating scientific research.

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When we look at scientific research we will see that there is often an existing consensus that establishes an onus, or burden of proof, on any new, conflicting information.

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A study that makes claims contrary to the existing consensus needs to provide sufficiently strong evidence to meet the burden of proof established by that consensus.

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Such a study should not only provide evidence for its claims, but also give some account of why the previous position should no longer be accepted.

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For example, people who claim there are Sasquatches or that the Loch Ness monster exists must provide considerable evidence to overturn the current view that there are no such creatures.

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The onus is on the believer in such curious creatures to come up with evidence, not on the sceptic to “disprove” the existence of such creatures.

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Often the onus is on the person who claims the existence of something because it is usually much easier to prove that something exists (if it does!) than to prove that it doesn’t exist.

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All it would take would be to find and display an Ogopogo to prove the existence of one; but even a great deal of looking in the right sort of places and failing to find that creature still leaves open some reasonable doubt: maybe we haven’t looked hard enough.