Could you? Or could you only empirically prove that there was no horse in the box when you opened it? Maybe there was a horse in it that ran away very quickly immediately before you looked in.
It’s extremely unlikely, for sure, but not physically impossible. Even if it’s a very small box, maybe it was a very small horse. Perhaps one of those duck sized horses I’ve heard so much about on other, inferior sites.
I think the meaning of the phrase isn’t meant to be literal; or, actually, sorry, is meant to be extremely literal. Without absolute knowledge of the universe, you can’t prove with absolute conviction that a very small, very fast horse didn’t exist in your hypothetical box. It’s a pedantic saying, to be sure.
But yeah, I agree about the afterlife.
(If I had a nickel for every conversation I’ve had on Lemmy about the afterlife in the past day or two, I’d have ten cents, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.)
You can’t prove a negative.
Also, at least on DDG, searching for that phrase returns some pretty interesting results.
I mean. I feel like if I had a cardboard box I think I could prove that there wasn’t a horse in it.
The real problem here is that we can’t prove he even looked in the box.
Could you? Or could you only empirically prove that there was no horse in the box when you opened it? Maybe there was a horse in it that ran away very quickly immediately before you looked in.
It’s extremely unlikely, for sure, but not physically impossible. Even if it’s a very small box, maybe it was a very small horse. Perhaps one of those duck sized horses I’ve heard so much about on other, inferior sites.
I think the meaning of the phrase isn’t meant to be literal; or, actually, sorry, is meant to be extremely literal. Without absolute knowledge of the universe, you can’t prove with absolute conviction that a very small, very fast horse didn’t exist in your hypothetical box. It’s a pedantic saying, to be sure.
But yeah, I agree about the afterlife.
(If I had a nickel for every conversation I’ve had on Lemmy about the afterlife in the past day or two, I’d have ten cents, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.)