Single Idea 18820

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 3. Evidentialism / a. Evidence]

Full Idea

In English, the word 'evidence' behaves as a mass term: we speak of someone's having little evidence for an assertion, and of one thinker's having more evidence than another for a claim. One the other hand, we also speak of 'pieces' of evidence.

Gist of Idea

In English 'evidence' is a mass term, qualified by 'little' and 'more'

Source

Ian Rumfitt (The Boundary Stones of Thought [2015], 5.2)

Book Reference

Rumfitt,Ian: 'The Boundary Stones of Thought' [OUP 2015], p.133


A Reaction

And having 'more' evidence does not mean having a larger number of pieces of evidence, so it really is like an accumulated mass.