“Your comparison between the Amanda Knox case and scientific knowledge leaves me cold. Science is concerned with regularities, situations where induction applies; the knowledge sought in a criminal case is of a completely different kind, by definition applying to a unique and hopefully irregular situation.”
I’m eerily reminded of creationists arguing that studying evolution isn’t “science”, because it happened in the past. I don’t see how it follows that the knowledge sought in a criminal case is somehow “different” than the knowledge sought in otherwise “legitimate” scientific pursuits. At the risk of playing definition games, if science is simply the methodology used to arrive at correct answers, then science can be applied to the Amanda Knox case—resulting in “scientific” knowledge.
“Your comparison between the Amanda Knox case and scientific knowledge leaves me cold. Science is concerned with regularities, situations where induction applies; the knowledge sought in a criminal case is of a completely different kind, by definition applying to a unique and hopefully irregular situation.”
I’m eerily reminded of creationists arguing that studying evolution isn’t “science”, because it happened in the past. I don’t see how it follows that the knowledge sought in a criminal case is somehow “different” than the knowledge sought in otherwise “legitimate” scientific pursuits. At the risk of playing definition games, if science is simply the methodology used to arrive at correct answers, then science can be applied to the Amanda Knox case—resulting in “scientific” knowledge.