Classifying Forms and Combinations of Evidence: Necessary in a Science of Evidence*
David A. Schum · British Academy eBooks · 2011
This chapter shows how necessary it is for any science, including a science of evidence, to be able to classify phenomena of interest. It presents an evidence classification scheme that is ‘substance blind’, meaning that the classes of individual items of evidence identified are recurrent and apply regardless of the substance or content of the evidence. There are also substance-blind combinations of evidence that are also recurrent. The chapter shows how substance-blindness occurs as a matter of course involving concepts encountered throughout science, logic, and mathematics.