Monday, January 25, 2010

Truth & evidence at work



Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology (the study of the human skeleton) in legal -often criminal cases- where the victim's remains are in the advanced stages of decomposition.

I made the point of Descartes' criteria of "absolute certainty" being too tough. In real life, we don't access truth that way. In this video, see Dr. Thomas Muriello addressing the importance of "collecting evidence," and teams of people sharing technologies. Crime evidence are clues, bits and pieces of the whole puzzle. If the puzzle is our 100%, we start with sections of it. Sometimes the whole puzzle may never be reassembled. That doesn't mean we can have a pretty good idea of its form.