Sunday, October 21, 2012

Chapter 4: #3

One topic I found very interesting throughout this chapter is the fallacies and unreliability of evidence. In particular, hearsay and anecdotal evidence. I always believed that testimonies are one of the strongest forms of evidence in a case, but apparently it is not. Hearsay evidence is evidence that is heard and then passed on amongst multiple other people. Anecdotal evidence is one's testimony through experience in the form of a story. Anecdotal evidence is not to be trusted because people tend to have poor or inaccurate memories as well as can exaggerate, distort, or completely lie and change the story. I can understand why these may be seen as unreliable, but sometimes they are the only evidence we have.
Testimonies and anecdotes can never really be determined to be true, yet it is based on belief and has no hard evidence. As I read this chapter, I did find that it is better to research and find more physical or proven proof to determine if something is real or not, but sometimes we may be forced to believe in stories from people due to a lack of real evidence.

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