What constitutes Proof?

We worked very hard during the first few weeks of this semester to address this question. I listen to the radio, watch television, and hear people chatting in truck stops and dimly lit roadside diners often enough to know that people accept all sorts of claims with no proof whatsoever. Unfortunately, this indicates to me that an alarmingly large portion of our world a) have no idea what it means for something to be proven (or even supported), or b) don't care if things are demonstrably true or not Does repeating a claim represent proof? Of course not. What about my particular belief that a claim is true? Nope.

Without some reproducible, falsifiable framework for investigating reality, we are basically left with about 50% "I never thought about whether or not that was true" and 50% "I think it's true because I think it's true."

It's this notion of a "framework of inquiry" that we have been interrogating ruthlessly since august.