_The constantification of conditions_ now consists in standardizing the
present instance, thus: Whenever similar circumstances are given, i.e.:
the same instruments of evidence are present, the evidence of guilt is
established. Now the accompanying changes with regard to the effect,
i.e.: proof of guilt through evidence, have to be tested--therefore the
individual conditions--i.e.: the individual sources of evidence have to
be established and their values to be determined and _varied_. Finally,
the accompanying change in effect (conviction by evidence) is to be
tested. The last procedure requires discussion; the rest is self
evident. In our business isolation is comparatively easy, inasmuch as
any individual statement, any visual impression, any effect, etc., may
be abstracted without difficulty. Much harder is the determination of
its value. If, however, we clearly recognize that it is necessary to
express the exact value of each particular source of evidence, and that
the task is only to determine comparative valuation, the possibility of
such a thing, in at least a sufficiently close degree of certainty, must
be granted. The valuation must be made in respect of two things--(1) its
_reliability_ (subjective and relative); (2) its _significance_
(objective and absolute). On the one hand, the value of the evidence
itself must be tested according to the appraisement of the person who
presents it and of the conditions under which he is important; on the
other, what influence evidence accepted as reliable can exercise upon
the _effect_, considered in and for itself. So then, when a testimony is
being considered, it must first be determined whether the witness was
able and willing to speak the truth, and further, what the importance of
the testimony may be in terms of the changes it may cause in the
_organization_ of the case.
Of greatest importance and most difficult is the variation of conditions
and the establishment of the changes thereby generated, with regard to
the _effect_,--i.e.: the critical interpretation of the material in
hand. Applied to a case, the problem presents itself in this wise: I
consider each detail of evidence by itself and cleared of all others,
and I vary it as often as it is objectively possible to do so. Thus I
suppose that each statement of the witness might be a lie, entirely or
in part; it might be incorrect observation, false inference, etc.--and
then I ask myself: Does the evidence of guilt, the establishment of an
especial trial, now remain just? If not, is it just under other and
related possible circumstances? Am I in possession of these
circumstances? If now the degree of apparent truth is so far tested that
these variations may enter and the accusation still remain just, the
defendant is convicted: but only under these circumstances.
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