*Le sigh*
Negative proof fallacyArgument from ignorance fallacy (a.k.a. argument from personal conviction)
There are two forms:
X is true because there is no proof that X is false.
X is false because there is no proof that X is true.
Both are logically fallacious.
I'd rather not retread a question of evidence for a thread that no longer exists, so I just leave it at this:
Claiming that the photographs
must actually depict war-related violence simply because there is no evidence that they
don't is clearly a logical fallacy. It would also be a logical fallacy to claim that the pictures
must be fake or
must depict something other than what was claimed simply because they lacked citations, references, and context would also be fallacy of the same time.
However, as far as I can tell, no one has made the second claim, Monte. At least not in
this thread, anyway. I think you fail to make the distinction between two very different claims: "You did not provide any validation/references/etc. for your images." vs. "Your images are false." The first claim
does not entail the second.
What
has been claimed is that you posted the pictures without any sort of citations or references that would allow a person to determine where they came from, and what they depicted. Again, the thread no longer exists, so I have nothing to go on but my own recollection. As far as that goes, I don't
remember any of the images being sourced, but take that only for what it is -- a single human recollection. I can't
prove that my recollection of the matter is accurate.
Now to the matter of google image search vs. google hit counts. While I appreciate the point that DFK is trying to make, these strike me as separate (if related) issues. The first raises the question as to whether the fact that google returns a particular image in a search for a phrase constitutes acceptable proof that the image actually and accurately depicts what was searched for. IMHO, it does not. It certainly wouldn't meet any journalistic or legal standards for evidence.
The second raises the question of whether or not hit counts from a "googlefight" have the same statistical validity as an opinion poll. My opinion is that they are not, though this is an entirely separate issue from whether or not opinion polls themselves have much statistical validity, which is then a totally separate issue from how much weight public opinion itself ought to have in lawmaking. I.e. just because something is popular and people like it, doesn't mean that it's right or a good idea. But on the other hand, we have to balance this against the principles of a Representative government.
But in any case, I don't think that anyone other than Montegue took Araf--- Mus's comment to be an entirely serious claim of proof of anything.