This a valid modus tollens with double negation. Hakki accepts that the premisses are true I should imagine. Therefore as far as Hakki is concerned anyway you can prove a negative. Have you a reference re trying to prove a negative is a fallacy. We prove negatives all the time. Is it somehow easier to prove that there is an elephant in the bathroom then that there isnt? For some matters it may be difficult or perhaps impossible to prove propositions of the form x is not y....but that is another matter.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 10:42 AM Subject: RE: A note to the exorcists
> Hakki,
>
> Thanks for being so gracious.
>
> As for you comments below, it is the first rule of logical fallacies that
> you cannot prove a negative.
>
> Go ahead and try:
>
> Prove that you do not work for the U.S. government as an agent tasked to
> disrupt the left by spreading conspiracist theories.
>
> Prove that you are not really posting these messages from Hackensack, New
> Jersey.
>
> Prove that the Libyan spy agency does not secretly own the Fox News
Channel.
>
> Sigh...
>
> -Chip
>
>
> > I suggest you contribute to the list by showing us your
> > research. What have
> > you got to offer that disproves the Interfor report? How can
> > you prove that
> > the holes in the case against the Libyans aren't there?
> > Without evidence,
> > your opinions are uninteresting.
> >
> > Hakki
> >
>