Can we really prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt?

Question

To the person who answered that you can prove that 2+2 will not ever equal 5, one could doubt that because what if you're talking about two couples (4 people) but the one couple, the wife is pregnant, now if you believe that life starts at conception, technically, couldn't that mean then that 2+2 actually does mean 5 now?

I just love philosophy and science and how it makes you think about things in new and even strange ways. I like messing with peoples minds about these things too.

Answer 1

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) nothing - I mean NOTHING - can be proven beyond a shadow of doubt. Why? Because each of perceives not true reality, but reality as it is interpreted by our physical senses, sent through our neural network, and then processed into consciousness. Because of this chain of events, it is impossible for any of us to know if what we are witnessing is true reality, or just reality to us. If you have seen the movie "The Matrix", then you have seen a glimpse of what I am talking about. Although it was a fictional movie, the premise - that we could be living in a simulation generated by some higher intelligence - cannot be disproven. It doesn't necessarily mean it's true, it just means that we can't prove that it is not true. Therefore, since there is no "objective" view of reality available to us beyond our senses, we cannot "absolutely" prove anything.

Answer 2

Depends on the person trying to do the proving. If he/she is of a doubtful mind and can always find (or imagine) possibilities for not being sure, then probably not.
But I imagine most of us can think of things they believe to be true "beyond the shadow of a doubt."
However, you might like this excerpt from a T S Eliot poem:

"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow


Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom"

Answer 3

Your Q is incomplete. May I focus it to something more specific: " Can we really prove anything "is *true or *false" beyond a shadow of a doubt?

If you are a skeptic, the A is no bec everything is unknowable and truth and falseness are indeterminate. But if you are not a skeptic, or nihilist, or post-modernist, the A is yes. For example, tautologies in logic are provable beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Contingent truths aren't provable like tautologies by deduction are because they are inductions. And (as Hume pointed out) such truths are open to change and, in any case, would require a godlike perfect knowledge of all cases which is unattainable.

A word of caution: The verb "prove" is a tricky word that means many things to different people. Philosophers and Mathematicians if they use it, use it more precisely than the general public does. Philosophers rarely use it because it is a poorly understood word and there are better alternatives like determine, verify, confirm. etc.

For instance, "proving" something, anything, is ethically right or wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt is impossible. You can only make the case for it being right or wrong but you can't "prove" it.

Answer 4

I think we can prove something beyond a reasonable doubt. You can prove it by using reason and logic in a correct manner. However, someone can always cast unreasonable doubts. Someone can always make an unreasonable claim, such as saying, "maybe 2+2=5."

Answer 5

well lets take a hypothesis .and let me prove it beyond a shadow of doubt. the hypothesis is nothing can be proven beyond a shadow of doubt. now the prove: no matter how much evidence you collect its no guarantee it will happen like that the next time. for example whats the guarantee things will fall to the earth the next time you throw a ball to the sky? no guarantees. likewise......hypothesis proved.

Answer 6

Nothing can be proven to be 100% true by empirical means. There are only high probablities and low probabilities. Concepts with extremely high probabilities of being accurate are commonly accepted as factual.

Answer 7

Yes: I exist. As in: cogito ergo sum.

That's where it ends --the list of things you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, I mean.

Answer 8

Nothing can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. You can have a hypothesis and gather evidence, but things change, and many things are illusory.

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Answer 9

To some of the people some of the time. To some of the people none of the time. To all of the people not at any time.

Answer 10

Yes.

Existence.