The case of Russell's teapot

 Yesterday’s note was about the American logician C.S. Peirce’s account of belief. Bertrand Russell got to a similar point with a parable.

Imagine that someone asserts that there is a china teapot orbiting the Sun between Earth and Mars. It’s too small to be picked up by a telescope.

We can imagine such a thing: the assertion violates no logical laws.

But verifying the truth or falsity of that claim is a practical impossibility.

What do you make of the claim? Russell’s point is that the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. You, the person on whom the claim of credibility is being made, are not obligated to do anything.

You are not obligated to accept or reject the claim. You’re not obligated to do — or, in this case, believer — anything at all.