If we add that “every judgment is an identification and that in every
judgment we assert that the content represented is identical in spite of
two different associative relationships,”[160] it must become clear what
dangers we undergo if the associative relationships of a judge are too
poor and narrow. As Mittermaier said seventy years ago: “There are
enough cases in which the weight of the evidence is so great that all
judges are convinced of the truth in the same way. But in itself what
determines the judgment is the essential character of him who makes it.”
What he means by essential character has already been indicated.
We have yet to consider the question of the value of inferences made by
a witness from his own combinations of facts, or his descriptions. The
necessity, in such cases, of redoubled and numerous examinations is
often overlooked. Suppose, for example, that the witness does not know a
certain important date, but by combining what he does know, infers it to
have been the second of June, on which day the event under discussion
took place. He makes the inference because at the time he had a call
from A, who was in the habit of coming on Wednesdays, but there could be
no Wednesday after June seventh because the witness had gone on a long
journey on that day, and it could not have been May 26 because this day
preceded a holiday and the shop was open late, a thing not done on the
day A called. Nor, moreover, could the date have been May 20, because it
was very warm on the day in question, and the temperature began to rise
only after May 20. In view of these facts the event under discussion
must have occurred upon June 2nd and only on that day.
As a rule, such combinations are very influential because they appear
cautious, wise and convincing. They impose upon people without
inclination toward such processes. More so than they have a right to,
inasmuch as they present little difficulty to anybody who is accustomed
to them and to whom they occur almost spontaneously. As usually a thing
that makes a great impression upon us is not especially examined, but is
accepted as astounding and indubitable, so here. But how very necessary
it is carefully to examine such things and to consider whether the
single premises are sound, the example in question or any other example
will show. The individual dates, the facts and assumptions may easily be
mistaken, and the smallest oversight may render the result false, or at
least not convincing.
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