The Argument from Silence

Bibliographic Data

ID3206268
AuthorsJohn Lange (corresponding author)
Year1966
Volume5
Issue3
Pages288
Publication date1966-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2504447
OpenAlexW2325069490
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Various reasons may be proposed to support a statement about past events, such as references to common tendencies, empirical laws, statistical generalizations, relevant customs, and the character of individuals; but, more characteristically, historiographic reasoning rests on evidence statements statements occurring in, or implied by, provisionally authenticated documents, such as diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers, reports, or inscriptions. The historian's typical conclusion is largely a function of accepted evidence statements. If a warranted set of reasons, or premises, for his argument were to be created, we would expect evidence statements to be cardinal constituents in the set. This predominance of evidence statements is a characteristic of historiographic as opposed to scientific argument, although there is a trivial sense in which the scientist must also rely on evidence statements, namely the records and reports of previous researchers. Paradoxically, however, one of history's most delightful and important arguments, the argument from silence, does not rely on evidence statements. As a first approximation, one might say that the argument from silence purports to prove that a given claim C is false, or unworthy of belief, because acceptable evidence statements to support C do not exist. This characterization requires several qualifications, some of which are discussed in later sections.2

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Silence · History · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science

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