While I agree that “co-proofs” as you’ve described them are interesting, I’m not sure on how useful they are as a concept. While a lack of counter-evidence certainly helps when we want to argue in favor of a hypothesis, if there isn’t enough evidence to bring that hypothesis to our attention in the first place, then we’re privileging that hypothesis.
To speak to the example you give, while it is true that for any given person, not having an alibi is a co-proof of their involvement in a crime, there are likely vast numbers of people who don’t have alibis, so absent additional proof that lets us pick from among those without alibis, the co-proof doesn’t really get us anywhere by itself.
I agree that I’d rather not reason in the falsification way at all if I’m putting the effort in, as it can lead to privileging the hypothesis and to subtle forms of confirmation bias. Yet, I do find myself reasoning in the falsification way frequently, as a convenient approximation. So, there’s a question: is it better to introduce mental shorthand which streamline falsification-style thinking, on the grounds that it seems frequently useful? Or, does that risk one falling into the failure modes associated with falsification-style reasoning more often? I’m not sure.
While I agree that “co-proofs” as you’ve described them are interesting, I’m not sure on how useful they are as a concept. While a lack of counter-evidence certainly helps when we want to argue in favor of a hypothesis, if there isn’t enough evidence to bring that hypothesis to our attention in the first place, then we’re privileging that hypothesis.
To speak to the example you give, while it is true that for any given person, not having an alibi is a co-proof of their involvement in a crime, there are likely vast numbers of people who don’t have alibis, so absent additional proof that lets us pick from among those without alibis, the co-proof doesn’t really get us anywhere by itself.
I agree that I’d rather not reason in the falsification way at all if I’m putting the effort in, as it can lead to privileging the hypothesis and to subtle forms of confirmation bias. Yet, I do find myself reasoning in the falsification way frequently, as a convenient approximation. So, there’s a question: is it better to introduce mental shorthand which streamline falsification-style thinking, on the grounds that it seems frequently useful? Or, does that risk one falling into the failure modes associated with falsification-style reasoning more often? I’m not sure.