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EXPERTISE: A PHILOSOPHICAL INTRODUCTION ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY Critical Thinking, by Robert Arp and Jamie Carlin Watson Epistemology: The Key Thinkers, edited by Stephen Hetherington Problems in Epistemology and Metaphysics, edited by Steven B. Cowan Problems in Value Theory, edited by Steven B. Cowan The Myth of Luck, by Steven D. Hales EXPERTISE: A PHILOSOPHICAL INTRODUCTION Jamie Carlin Watson BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2021 Copyright © Jamie Carlin Watson, 2021 Jamie Carlin Watson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xxii–xxiii constitute an extension of this copyright page. Cover design Holly Bell All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Watson, Jamie Carlin, author. Title: Expertise : a philosophical introduction / Jamie Carlin Watson. Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “What does it mean to be an expert? What sort of authority do experts really have? And what role should they play in today’s society? Addressing why ever larger segments of society are skeptical of what experts say, Expertise: A Philosophical Introduction reviews contemporary philosophical debates and introduces what an account of expertise needs to accomplish in order to be believed. Drawing on research from philosophers and sociologists, chapters explore widely held accounts of expertise and uncover their limitations, outlining a set of conceptual criteria a successful account of expertise should meet. By providing suggestions for how a philosophy of expertise can inform practical disciplines such as politics, religion, and applied ethics, this timely introduction to a topic of pressing importance reveals what philosophical thinking about expertise can contribute to growing concerns about experts in the 21st century”– Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2020019580 (print) | LCCN 2020019581 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350083844 (hb) | ISBN 9781350083851 (pb) | ISBN 9781350083868 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781350083837 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Knowledge, Theory of. | Expertise. Classification: LCC BD161 .W38 2020 (print) | LCC BD161 (ebook) | DDC 001.01–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019580 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019581 ISBN: HB: 978-1-3500-8384-4 PB: 978-1-3500-8385-1 ePDF: 978-1-3500-8386-8 eBook: 978-1-3500-8383-7 Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. 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For Aaron Thomas Friend, musician, polymath vi CONTENTS List of Figures viii Preface: The Big Questions about Expertise ix Acknowledgments xxii 1 The Trouble with Experts 1 2 Philosophical Approaches to Expertise 29 3 Truth-Based Accounts of Expertise 49 4 Performance-Based Accounts of Expertise— Part 1 87 5 Performance-Based Accounts of E xpertise— Part 2 109 6 Social Role Accounts of Expertise 137 7 The Cognitive Systems Account of Expertise 165 Notes 196 References and Further Reading 209 Index 240 LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Taxonomy of Expertise in Plato’s Statesman 30 2.2 Self-directors and Direction-takers 31 3.1 A Continuum of Competence in a Domain 54 3.2 A More Detailed Continuum of Competence in a Domain 55 3.3 True Beliefs Relative to Others on the Continuum 55 6.1 Harry Collins’s Periodic Table of Expertises 157 7.1 The Cognitive Systems Account of Expertise 175 7.2 The Cognitive Systems Account of Expertise, Revised 176 PREFACE: THE BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT EXPERTISE Socrates: And when you call in an adviser, you should see whether [they] too [are] skillful [technikos] in the accomplishment of the end which you have in view? Nicias: Most true. (Socrates in Plato’s Laches 185d, Jowett trans., 1892) Some concepts are so rooted in ordinary language that attempts to study them quickly become a series of quibbles over examples. Expertise is such a concept. We know what it means in general. We use it conversationally without any trouble. We know it has something to do with knowledge and something to do with skill. We tend to agree that experts—other things being equal—should be trusted as authorities in their domains. This is why we hire tax professionals when our finances get complicated, why we get a lawyer instead of representing ourselves, why we choose to work with certain grad school mentors over others, and why we seek out medical specialists about some of our symptoms. In other words, we know that some people stand, consistently, in a better position than we do with respect to some types of information or abilities. It is easy to call such people experts. But is that what it means to be an expert? Is someone an expert just because they can do something better than we can, or do they also have to be great at it? Is it enough to be certified in a field or have a Ph.D. in an academic discipline to be an expert, or do you also have to work in that field a few years before you’re an expert? As soon as we start trying to pin down just what it means to be an expert and who fits that bill, things get murky. If your income tax documents are simple enough, an accountant might do no better than your Aunt Sally at filing them correctly. And not all tax professionals are the same. Someone who primarily does taxes for businesses may not know how to help individuals who would benefit from some types of tax protections. The