Evidence is often

1
Evidence is often indirect and reasoning to an
object or event is often inferential

• Conventional and common sense view
• Evidence is directly observable
• Quarks? Evolution? The Big Bang?
• Lederman evidence for unobservable objects
• Atoms (for a long time)
• Subatomic particles and the Higgs boson
  (today)
• Methods
• Thought experiments/conceptual analysis
  (Democritus)
• Combination of thought/conceptual analyses and
  empirical study/evidence

2
Evidence is often indirect and reasoning to an
object or event is often inferential

• Justification?
• As with Ledermans invisible soccer ball, such
  objects or events, or theories that include them,
  are able to explain what is observable
• And often bring together what might otherwise
  seem like disparate phenomena
• Molecules (prior to their being observed)
• Indirect evidence (expansion, heat conduction,
  surface tension)
• Can be marshaled under the familiar laws of
  motion

3
Evidence is often indirect and reasoning to an
object or event is often inferential

• Gould evidence for unobservable processes
• Natural selection (the mechanism)
• Evolution (the end result)
• Signs of history
• Jury rigging and contrivances
• Imperfections
• Rudimentary or vestigial organs
• Traits as artifacts of natural processes (e.g.,
  natural selection)

4
Evidence is often indirect and reasoning to an
object or event is often inferential

• Democritus thought experiment
• Imagine a knife of polished bronze and very
  sharp.
• Begin to cut up a piece of cheese, first in half,
  then in half again, and so forth, until there are
  only tiny pieces.
• If I were tiny enough to see the pieces and could
  continue cutting, I would eventually reach
  something that is not able to be cut, that is
  indivisible.

5
Evidence is often indirect and reasoning to an
object or event is often inferential

• The Big Bang and the Hubble Telescope

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