Abstract
The philosophic spectator watches from a distance as a “disinterested” and impartial member of an audience (Arendt, Beiner (ed), Lectures on Kant’s political philosophy, University of Chicago Press, 1992; Kant, On history, Prentice Hall Inc, 1957). Judicial systems use many of the elements of the spectator in the concept of an eyewitness (Katz, Ohio arrest, search, and seizure, Banks-Baldwin, 2015) but, with increased video technology use, the courts have taken the witness a step further by hiring forensic video analysts. The analyst’s stance is rooted in objectivity, and the process of breaking a video down to its component parts to examine it, but is it based on the philosophic spectator? To better understand whether the forensic video analyst has adopted the stance of the philosophic spectator, this paper examines both the analyst and spectator, and discusses the implications for how we think and administer justice.
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The author would like to thank Camilla Stivers, Gregg Cawley and the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research (WIHR) for their review and helpful feedback of an earlier version of the manuscript.
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Piccorelli, J.T. The Judging Spectator and Forensic Video Analysis: Technological Implications for How We Think and Administer Justice. Philos. Technol. 34, 1517–1529 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-021-00470-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-021-00470-7