Hitchens's Razor
Origin
From Hitchens's 2003 "Letters to a Young Contrarian". A reformulation of the Latin "Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur" (what is freely asserted is freely denied). Frequently cited as a tool against religion, superstition, and conspiracy theories. Compresses the burden-of-proof principle into one line.
Meaning
"There are aliens in space." — proving it is your burden, not mine. "Korea's economy will collapse soon." — same logic. The simplest filter applicable to every claim on the internet.
Lesson — Meeting Eastern Classics
Analects 7.1: "I transmit but do not create; I trust and love the ancient." Confucius did not invent what he had not seen. Hitchens sharpened that caution into a logical tool.
"證" combines speech (言) with ascending (登) — originally to testify before a god. The Analects: "Knowing you know and knowing you don't — that is real knowledge." Assertion without 證 is not knowledge but conjecture.
