How To Really Understand The Raven Paradox?
A paradox that rocks the foundations of scientific reasoning!
The raven paradox knocks at the door of one of the most fundamental aspects of science. At its core, it stems from the following question:
“What is evidence?”
Logician and philosopher Carl Gustav Hempel formulated a playful-sounding logic puzzle in the 1940s to demonstrate how this paradox occurs. He starts with the following statement:
“All ravens are black.”
This statement is also where the paradox’s name comes from. Following this, let us say that you are tasked with figuring out whether this statement is true or not.
On your adventure, you encounter a black raven first. You would intuitively consider this as evidence confirming the original statement. Since it is just one instance of ‘a’ black raven, it is not outright proof of the original statement, but just a piece of evidence that confirms the statement.
Next, you encounter a green apple. Would you consider this as evidence in favour of or against the original statement? Intuitively, you are likely to treat this piece of information as irrelevant to the topic at hand. But what if I told you that this is indeed evidence in favour of the original statement?
