Lawyer Harry Potter on Eyewitness Testimony

Barrister Harry Potter asks whether we can believe the evidence of our own eyes. It's a vital question for the justice system today and Harry traces it back to the work of 18th century Philosopher David Hume. Hume, a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, wrote about miracles, arguing they were most likely the product of wishful thinking and faulty perception. His arguments are still important for barristers, judges and juries still reliant on eye witness testimony to decide guilt or innocence. To find out how our eyes deceive us, Harry meets professor Amina Menon, expert in eye witness evidence at Royal Holloway, University of London. And Harry visits professor of philosophy Peter Millican at Oxford University to ask whether Hume's methods can help us overcome our inbuilt biases. Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

You can listen to Lawyer Harry Potter on Eyewitness Testimony online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Lawyer Harry Potter on Eyewitness Testimony is an episode from A History of Ideas by BBC.

This episode is 13:10 long.

This episode was published on Aug 4, 2015.

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