This book offers a collective study of issues to do with experts and expertise, a topic of tremendous contemporary significance. The perspectives are philosophical but draw on relevant work from the sciences and social sciences. In addition, in keeping with other volumes in Oxford University Press's Engaging Philosophy series, many of the papers in the volume have an applied dimension, in that they examine the issues in practical settings. The questions discussed include the following: What is an expert? Who decides who the experts are? Should we always defer to experts? How should expertise inform public policy? What happens when the experts disagree? Must experts be unbiased? Should all experts be treated the same, or does it matter what the source of the expertise is? How should the testimony of experts be reported by the media? The chapters in the volume are organized into six sections: expertise and trust; situated and group expertise; expertise and public policy; expertise and virtue; expertise about value; and new directions. This volume will be of interest to scholars in such fields as philosophy, sociology, political theory, psychology, cognitive science, and bioethics. It will also be of relevance to policy-makers interested in the role that expertise plays in public policy.
Mirko Farina is a philosopher and a cognitive scientist. He is Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science and Head of Human Machine Interaction Lab at the Institute for Digital Economy and Artificial Systems, jointly established by Xiamen University and Lomonosov Moscow State University. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science at Innopolis University.
Andrea Lavazza is a moral philosopher and a neuroethicist. He is senior research fellow at the Centro Universitario Internazionale, Arezzo, Italy, and adjunct professor in Neuroethics at the University of Milan and at the University of Pavia, Italy, where he also teaches Philosophy of Mind. His main interests are at the intersection among ethics, epistemology, cognitive science, and new technologies. Lavazza has published over 110 papers in peer-reviewed journals and a dozen books both in Italian and in English.
Duncan Pritchard is UC Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Knowledge, Technology & Society at the University of California, Irvine. He was previously Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Eidyn research center at the University of Edinburgh. His monographs include
Epistemic Luck (OUP, 2005),
The Nature and Value of Knowledge (OUP, 2010),
Epistemological Disjunctivism (OUP, 2012),
Epistemic Angst: Radical Skepticism and the Groundlessness of Our Believing (Princeton University Press, 2015), and
Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2019). His academic distinctions include the award of the Philip Leverhulme Prize, election to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and delivering the annual Soochow Lectures in Philosophy.
