From Evidence to Proof

What elevates evidence to the status of "proof," and how is consensus reached?

From Evidence to Proof

About From Evidence to Proof

This Arts & Science-wide conversation was held virtually via Zoom on December 17 from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm.

Like evidence, proof has long been a signal issue for scholarly disciplines and professional practice. The trajectories by which proof is linked to evidence vary widely according to discipline or context, ranging from the strictly formulaic to the most intricately narrative. While closely related, evidence and proof are quite distinct in both specificity and effect. What elevates evidence to the status of “proof” in your discipline, and how is consensus reached – if at all? Urgent public discourse around complex matters in which we all have a stake – justification for major public policy legislation, for example – make the often polemical concepts of evidence and proof ripe for conversation.

Join our speakers and breakout discussions after each panel for meaningful conversation.

Schedule

Welcoming Remarks: Antonio Merlo

12:00 pm - First Panel introduced by Una Chaudhuri

  • Sevinç Ercan – Evidence of Proof in the Field of Biology
  • Alexandra Zidovska – Physics of the Genome: Physical Proofs in Biological Systems
  • Michael Makover – Evidence Based Medicine: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  • Cristina Alberini – From Evidence to Proof in Biological Sciences
  • Alexander Landfair – Evidence, Proof, and Warrants
  • J. Martin Daughtry – Beyond Evidence: On the Value of Evocation in Scholarship
  • Aisha Khan – Evidence and Power

12:40 pm - Second Panel introduced by David Stasavage

  • David Gresham – From Evidence to Proof in Biology
  • Rachel Swarns – Can 'Proof' Lead Us to Consensus on the Legacy of Slavery?
  • Marc Walters – Why Proof? Why now? Clambering for Truth.
  • Xiao-Jing Wang – Seeking Truth About Subjective Mental Processes
  • Cyrus Samii – The Proof is in the Doing: Policy Experiments in Political Science
  • Jess Row – Verisimilitude: Why Fictional Truths Can Lead to Real-World Consequences

1:20 pm - Third Panel introduced by Greg Gabadadze

  • André Fenton – Switching Standards: Necessity and Sufficiency, Redundancy and Feedback
  • Aditi Mitra – The Acceptance of Fractionalized Phases in Condensed Matter Physics
  • Brigitte Bedos-Rezak – Proving the Forgery that Forged Europe (8th-21st century)
  • Guillermina Jasso – Evidence and Proof in Theory and Empirics
  • Michael Strevens – Making Proof Happen in Science
  • Tessa West – From Evidence to Proof in Social Psychology: We Often Don't Agree on What Evidence Is

Wrap-up remarks

Video Recording