Russell's Teapot Thought Experiment
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A Russell's Teapot Thought Experiment is a Thought Experiment in which some cognitive agent proposes that a teapot orbits in space between the Earth and Mars.
- AKA: Celestial Teapot.
- Context:
- It can be used to illustrate the Burden of Proof lies on the Believer.
- See: Bertrand Russell, Philosophic Burden of Proof, Falsifiability, Existence of God.
References
2014
- (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot Retrieved:2014-9-19.
- Russell's teapot, sometimes called the celestial teapot or cosmic teapot, is an analogy first coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making scientifically unfalsifiable claims rather than shifting the burden of proof to others, specifically in the case of religion. Russell wrote that if he claims that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, it is nonsensical for him to expect others to believe him on the grounds that they cannot prove him wrong. Russell's teapot is still referred to in discussions concerning the existence of God.