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5662 | Maybe induction could never prove the existence of something unobservable [Ayer] |
Full Idea: Some people hold that no inductive argument can give us any reason to believe in the existence of something which could not even in principle be observed. | |
From: A.J. Ayer (The Concept of a Person [1963], §I) | |
A reaction: I see nothing illogical in inferring the existence of a poltergeist from the recurrent flight of objects around my lounge. Only an excessive empiricism (which used to afflict Ayer) could lead to this claim. |