Review - 'Witness Testimony Evidence: Argumentation, Artificial Intelligence, and Law' by Douglas Walton
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008
9 Pages Posted: 27 Aug 2009
Date Written: 2008
Abstract
This review essay discusses Douglas Walton's recent book, Witness Testimony Evidence (Cambridge University Press, 2007). The book examines how testimony functions as evidence in law, and it explores various ways in which the structure of testimonial evidence (and the inferences drawn from it) may be modeled formally. The book also discusses the philosophical issues underlying the formal models as well as those underlying reasoning from testimonial evidence more generally. This essay situates the book's analysis within evidence scholarship, summarizes its chapters, and discusses some important limitations on the type of formal analysis pursued.
Keywords: witness, testimony, argumentation theory, formal dialectical models, artificial intelligence, abduction, plausibilistic reasoning
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