In the context of deciding how to handle a pandemic under uncertainty, or trying to model the world in the course of everyday life to make decisions, using the standards and sets of procedures of a criminal court is obvious nonsense.
That depends on the person’s goals. If your goal as a politician or as a government bureaucrat is to maximize your time in office then that can be a very good standard given the incentives in those areas. I believe in most cases “There is no evidence” is short for “I don’t want to be on record as making judgements on my own because then I could be punished for a judgement that turns out wrong”.
Then you should say “I don’t know”, not “no one knows and no one can know”, which is what “there is no evidence” really means. Of course, politicians tend to not want to admit they don’t know, but we should demand that of them, not accept it because they’re politicians.
That depends on the person’s goals. If your goal as a politician or as a government bureaucrat is to maximize your time in office then that can be a very good standard given the incentives in those areas. I believe in most cases “There is no evidence” is short for “I don’t want to be on record as making judgements on my own because then I could be punished for a judgement that turns out wrong”.
Then you should say “I don’t know”, not “no one knows and no one can know”, which is what “there is no evidence” really means. Of course, politicians tend to not want to admit they don’t know, but we should demand that of them, not accept it because they’re politicians.
Yes, of course, we should demand that.
But as long as there are certain incentives in place we shouldn’t be surprised if human beings act in accordance with those incentives.