I think the meaning of the word “evidence” is being debated here.
For some, it means “any stimulus from which useful information can potentially be extracted by a sufficiently sophisticated interpreter.”
For others, it means something like “a sophisticated document designed to ensure efficient information transfer to the reader.”
This is at the heart of debates over whether or not there is “no evidence” for a proposition. By the second definition, “the evidence for X is clear” is potentially a statement that’s perfectly compatible with X being wrong. And that’s not even necessarily bad. We might very well want a word to label “the documents that contain published expert opinion on X”, irrespective of whether or not that expert opinion is correct. We still call it a “gas can” even when there’s no gasoline in it.
I think the meaning of the word “evidence” is being debated here.
For some, it means “any stimulus from which useful information can potentially be extracted by a sufficiently sophisticated interpreter.”
For others, it means something like “a sophisticated document designed to ensure efficient information transfer to the reader.”
This is at the heart of debates over whether or not there is “no evidence” for a proposition. By the second definition, “the evidence for X is clear” is potentially a statement that’s perfectly compatible with X being wrong. And that’s not even necessarily bad. We might very well want a word to label “the documents that contain published expert opinion on X”, irrespective of whether or not that expert opinion is correct. We still call it a “gas can” even when there’s no gasoline in it.