What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
From Hitchens's 2007 book God Is Not Great, restating the burden of proof as a conversational rule. The underlying principle is considerably older, and the label was attached around the same period. It settles who must move first and nothing about who is right.
In practice
- A claim that a product improves outcomes, offered with no trial, needs no trial to set aside.
- A meeting assertion that "customers hate the new flow", offered without data, can be answered by asking for the data rather than by disproving it.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- Razors, rules and the tools of careful thought