Friday, December 09, 2005

Secret Evidence

I saw the phrase 'secret evidence' in one of the newspapers this week. I wondered how something secret could possibly be evidence. The question revolves around the value of testimony as evidence. If somebody I trust tells me that flamingos are pink birds, is that evidence? If somebody else, who overhears the conversation, says "Yes, flamingos are pink birds", is that more evidence? If somebody tells me "I have evidence that this is a flamingo, but it is secret", is that evidence for me?
As I see it, the first kind of testimony is evidence, but evidence of very limited value. It is evidence because it has the possibility of confirmation, because I can increase or decrease the strength of my belief in the assertion by adding further evidence, such as going to Lesbos and seeing if I can actually look at pink birds which people call flamingos. The second kind of testimony, simple agreement, seems to me to have no evidential value whatsoever; it brings nothing more to the argument. The third kind of testimony is more like the second than the first. It leaves no possibility of strengthening my belief by gaining further evidence, because the evidence is 'secret'.
I can see no reason why we should permit the state to act on 'secret' evidence; especially when that state could use such an epistemological nightmare to deprive us of our liberty.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

SUDS

OK, admit it; you have no idea what that acronym means do you? If you are picturing some nubile in a bath, on the centrefold of next week's ZOO, you are quite wrong.. How sad am I that I find this amusing? Do the words 'village pond' ring a church bell? I was intrigued to find that oodles of government (esp. Scottish parliament) money is being spent to promote SUDS - sustainable urban drainage schemes; google it if you do not believe me. After decades of focused academic endeavour, civil engineers and environmental activists have discovered (and I hope the god of irony will forgive me here) that the pond at the bottom of the village, which is where the water goes when it rains heavily and where the spilled effluvia from the stables fertilises the reedbed, is a jolly good idea. Revelation. Sorry, not trying hard enough. REVELATION!!!!