Hitchens's Razor
The principle that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence, placing the burden of proof on the claimant.
Category: Principles
Tags: principles, critical-thinking, reasoning, epistemology, logic
Explanation
Hitchens's razor is an epistemological principle popularized by the writer Christopher Hitchens and captured in his phrase, "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." It states that the burden of proof for any claim rests with the person making it, not with those who decline to accept it.
The practical force of the razor is that an unsupported assertion earns no obligation of rebuttal. If someone advances a claim and offers no evidence, an interlocutor is entitled to reject it out of hand, because a bare assertion provides nothing that would rationally compel belief. It shifts the conversational and logical responsibility back onto the claimant to supply reasons.
The idea is not original to Hitchens; it restates a long-standing principle about the burden of proof and echoes older formulations found in Latin legal and philosophical maxims. Hitchens's contribution was to phrase it memorably and deploy it prominently in debates, particularly over extraordinary metaphysical claims.
Used well, the razor is a defense against being drawn into disproving every groundless assertion that is thrown one's way, an exhausting and impossible task. Used carelessly, it can become a way to dismiss claims that do in fact carry evidence, so it is best understood as a rule about where the burden lies rather than as a verdict on whether a claim is ultimately true.
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