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Chapter 1 - The Cliff Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2021

David A. Lagnado
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

Chapter 1 introduces the main questions to be tackled in the book, tracing a crime case from the discovery of a body to the verdict of a court. How do we generate initial hypotheses from sparse information? How do we develop our hypotheses as we gather new evidence? How do we make sense of a large body of conflicting evidence to reach a final decision? The crime case highlights the challenges we face: to explain what actually happened – the web of cause and effects that led to the death – but also to evaluate the evidence, assessing the many reports, claims and counterclaims. I argue that our minds are better prepared for explaining than evaluating.

Type
Chapter
Information
Explaining the Evidence
How the Mind Investigates the World
, pp. 1 - 13
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • The Cliff Death
  • David A. Lagnado, University College London
  • Book: Explaining the Evidence
  • Online publication: 20 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511794520.002
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Cliff Death
  • David A. Lagnado, University College London
  • Book: Explaining the Evidence
  • Online publication: 20 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511794520.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Cliff Death
  • David A. Lagnado, University College London
  • Book: Explaining the Evidence
  • Online publication: 20 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511794520.002
Available formats
×