When Should Absence of Evidence Be Evidence of Absence? A Case Study from Paleogeology
Brewer, Matthew
According to what I call the Probabilistic View, absence of evidence is evidence of absence when finding evidence is highly expected. However, this view fails to make sense of the practice of using absence of evidence in the paleosciences, where finding evidence is typically not highly expected. Using a case from paleogeology, I offer a novel account of when absence of evidence should be evidence of absence, which I call the Pragmatic View: Appeals to absence of evidence as evidence of absence a