Witness Evidence

[RoadRunner79]

"Testimony is unreliable" means that witness statements are not generally something you can count on to be either accurate or truthful.  Tape measures, scales and thermometers are infinitely better in that capacity.

I suppose that it depends on what you mean by accurate. If you are saying that a person judging a value by just observation. I would agree a tape measure, scale or thermometer is going to have a much tighter tolerance. I would also expect the judgement to vary between people (some people are going to be better than others). If you mean, that people are not accurate in reporting what they have seen or experienced, then this would also apply to people telling you about the tape measures and scales. It would also apply to your personal observation not just testimony (one of the other ways of gaining knowledge).

As to being truthful, this can equally apply to any type of testimony including those which while the method may be more accurate (utilizing tape measures and thermometers), the report may not be truthful or completely accurate. This is why I do believe that multiple independent accounts are valuable.

We would apply this by not accepting witness statements as evidence in any context where being able to establish the veracity of evidence is important to us.

So we have to see it for ourselves? And then we have to trust that our observations are accurate... correct?

You can keep running in circles all day, but the answer is just going to be the same all day: people are full of shit, and so relying on them to establish truth is likely to lead to shitty conclusions. . .

Does this apply to yourself as well?