"a detached observer" is a perfectly correct and usable phrase in written English.
It refers to someone who stands back and watches a situation without getting involved or taking sides. For example, "The lawyer remained a detached observer as the two arguing parties began to raise their voices."
"As Moli'ere saw it, and writers today like Edmund White," Mr. Levi said, "he is an urban wanderer, a detached observer who immerses himself in the pleasure of observation and the scrutiny of street life".
But Livingstone is not speaking as a detached observer.
He is not, however, a detached observer: his creatures are invested with human feelings.
On the other hand, Nicholas Jenkins was the quintessential flâneur, a detached observer.
With Kay, he thought of himself as a detached observer, analyzing her and her type.
According to the survey, 77% of journalists said that being a detached observer was either very or extremely important.
We have however conceptualised the researcher as part of the network, as it is hard to imagine the existence of a truly detached observer as (s)he always comes from a particular position in time and space and thus must play an active role in eliciting and constructing ANT accounts [ 20, 21, 43, 59].
While everything clearly has its place in Stickles' scheme of things, a more detached observer could happily lose at least half an hour of music from The Most Lamentable Tragedy – including the cover of the Pogues' A Pair of Brown Eyes, which bafflingly replaces the original song's gorgeous melody with a less interesting one – and sharpen its impact in the process.
Yet this perspective, which has gained ascendency over the centuries and is now our dominant mindset, also serves to "disenchant" the world -- to draw us away into a distant, detached, observer position.
'Bangarang', 'The Summit' and 'Rough Neck' all drew rapturous crowd reactions, but, not being 'Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites', left me in Louis Theroux mode as an interested but detached observer.
As he reviewed the evidence, Lord Bridge signalled his own reactions: "I am of the opinion," he told the jury, "not shared by all my brothers on the bench, that if the judge has formed a clear view, it is much better to let the jury see that and say so, and not pretend to be a kind of Olympian detached observer".
