Fallacy
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Part of:How to argue fairly →
The person who asserts a claim carries the burden of giving a reason. Shifting the burden tells the sceptic to disprove it instead. Scepticism is not itself a positive theory that needs the same kind of proof.
Shifting the burden of proof is filed here as a fallacy. If you cannot point to that move in the remark in front of you, you do not yet have this fallacy. Disliking the conclusion is not enough, and a true premise does not repair a broken step.
This page adds no new definition and no statistic. The three scenes below only move the library’s example into a meeting, a news sentence, and a social feed. None of them is a reported case, and none of them carries a number.
The library’s example is the anchor, quoted so the later scenes cannot drift: ““I say there is a tunnel under the school. If you cannot show there isn’t, my map stands.” The map is the claim that needs support.” The three that follow change the room and keep the step.
Picture that example in a meeting, aimed at someone who has to answer before the next item. If the room cannot give the reply on the card, it has not answered the point. It has used Shifting the burden of proof. No survey of offices is claimed. The test is whether the step matches the card.
The same step can sit in a speech or a headline, where the pause is shorter and the audience is larger. Imagine the stored example said into a microphone and left unpacked. This is not a claim about a particular broadcast or a particular paper. The correction is still the reply on the card, not a different theory of the press.
Imagine the example as a caption. Agreement is not evidence the step was valid, and outrage is not evidence a different fallacy was in play. Match the step to the definition before you name it.
State who asserted what. Ask for the reason. You may also say what evidence would make you change your mind, without taking on a duty to prove a negative.
“That is Shifting the burden of proof” is not yet an answer. Name the step, then ask the question the card tells you to ask. If the remark survives, drop the label. If it fails, you still owe a reason for what you think instead. The reply does not hand you a new conclusion.
Shifting the burden of proof is easy to shout in place of a neighbour. The nearest card people mix this up with is Ad hominem. Use the comparison linked under this section when you are unsure which name fits. The comparison quotes the cards. It does not invent a third definition.
Write down the sentence you think is the mistake. If it matches one definition, use that name. If it matches neither, do not force a label. If it matches both, answer the two steps separately.
“I say there is a tunnel under the school. Prove there isn’t.” What is wrong?
The options and the explanation open in the quiz. Scoring stays on this device. There is no pass mark on this card.
The person who asserts a claim carries the burden of giving a reason. Shifting the burden tells the sceptic to disprove it instead. Scepticism is not itself a positive theory that needs the same kind of proof.
“I say there is a tunnel under the school. If you cannot show there isn’t, my map stands.” The map is the claim that needs support.
State who asserted what. Ask for the reason. You may also say what evidence would make you change your mind, without taking on a duty to prove a negative.