The rabbit hole of contentiousness

"I refute it thus" - Hume

Suppose you say two plus two make four, and someone challenges you on it. "Prove it!" he says.

Now supposing you humor him. First you try some abstract deductive demonstration from number theory. "Obfuscation! Gobbledegook!" he cries. Then you demonstrate with two pairs of pennies. "Coincidence!" he says. You repeat the demonstration with two different pairs of pennies. "Dumb luck!" You do it ten more times, and maybe he grudgingly admits... "Okay, maybe it work with pennies. But I still don't buy the general principle!"

It could be worse, actually. You show him two pairs of pennies, together. "See? Four pennies!" "What four pennies! I don't see any four pennies!" What then?

Unless you're almost as loony as he is, you tell him to go to hell.

This is what I do. But what's the principle here? The principle I see is: that which is self evident needs no proof.

What, you don't agree? Okay, let's try some exercises. Prove to me conclusively, from incontrovertible scientific evidence, the following list of assertions:


1. A is A

2. Two plus two make four.

3. A proposition cannot be both true and untrue at the same time and in the same way.

4. You exist.

5. I exist.

6. The universe exists.

7. Evil exists.

8. Man is an irrational animal.

9. Tom Cruise is not terribly bright.

10. The Moon exists.

11. Culture exists

12. Burden of proof is a treacherous thing.

13. You just proved to me numbers 1 through 12.

14. You just proved to me numbers 1 through 13.

15. You just proved to me...

No matter what proof you offer, I will not accept it. In fact, I'll get increasingly abusive and contemptuous, and call you all sorts of names, starting before you even offer any proof, simply for making the assertions. Then I'll quote Nietzsche or Derrida as if it *that* proves something. And when we get to number 13, I'm *really* gonna start giving it to you!

It's not that I disbelieve. I'm only pretending to. So... what are you gonna do about it?

What? You don't want to play this game? Okay. It is kind of a stupid game, after all. Just concede that there are some assertions that don't need proof, and we can move on.


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