Examples
Absence of evidence
(These examples contain or represent missing information.)
• Statements that begin with "I can't prove it but…" are often referring to some kind absence of evidence.
• There is no evidence of foul play here" is a direct reference to the absence of evidence.
Negative results
• When the doctor says that the test results were negative, it is usually good news.
• Under "Termites" the inspector checked the box that read "no".
• The results of Michelson–Morley's experiment reported no shift at all in the interference pattern.
Evidence of absence
(These examples contain definite evidence that can be used to show, indicate, suggest, infer or deduce the non-existence or non-presence of something.)
• A biopsy shows the absence of malignant cells.
• The null result found by Michelson–Morley's famous experiment represents "strong evidence" that the luminiferous aether was not present.
• One very carefully inspects the back seat of one's car and finds no tigers.
• The train schedule does not say that the train stops here at 3:00pm on a Sunday.
Arguments from ignorance
(Draws a conclusion based on lack of knowledge or evidence without accounting for all possibilities)
• "I take the view that this lack (of enemy subversive activity in the west coast) is the most ominous sign in our whole situation. It convinces me more than perhaps any other factor that the sabotage we are to get, the Fifth Column activities are to get, are timed just like Pearl Harbor... I believe we are just being lulled into a false sense of security." – Then California's Attorney General Earl Warren (before a congressional hearing in San Francisco on 21 February 1942)
In the field of science
• One looks in the back seat of one's car and finds no adult-sized kangaroos and then uses this negative/null adult-sized kangaroo detection results in conjunction with the previously determined fact (or just plain old proposition) that adult-sized kangaroos, if present, cannot evade such detection, to deduce a new fact that there are indeed no adult-sized kangaroos present in the back seat of said car.
Principles in law
The presumption of innocence, if present, effectively removes the possibility that the accused may be both guilty and unproven, from consideration in judgment, and as such the accused is considered as innocent unless proven guilty. (See decision table below)
1.) Innocent and unproven. Judged as innocent.
2.) Innocent and proven. Judged as guilty. (Jury is biased, misled, makes error; law is incorrect; false evidence fabricated etc.)
3.) Guilty and unproven. Judged as innocent. (Presumption of innocence)
4.) Guilty and proven. Judged as guilty. (Innocent unless/until proven guilty is a summary of this and easier to remember.)
