The Philosophy of Expertise: What is Expertise?

Conference "The Philosophy of Expertise: What is Expertise?"

January, 12 – 13, 2015

University of Muenster, Germany

Topic and aim:

Individuals and groups in our society heavily rely on expertise – explicitly and implicitly: reference to scientific experts is explicitly used to underpin knowledge aspirations in many domains as well as to guide decisions; consulting a doctor or attending a lecture at least implicitly assumes trust in the respective expertise. Although pervasive in everyday practices, the study of various forms of expertise did not reveal a definite answer to the crucial question: What is expertise? Moreover, perspectives on potential answers to this question differ across disciplines: philosophy, psychology and the social sciences provide diverse angles from which to explore experts and expertise.

The conference aims at bringing these different perspectives together and at studying the phenomenon of expertise from an interdisciplinary point of view. It will be the start of a tripartite series of conferences on the philosophy of expertise: the second conference will take place at Ghent University/Belgium on the topic 'How does expertise function?' and the third conference will take place at the University of Tilburg/Netherlands on the topic 'How to model expertise?'.

The key focus of the first conference in Muenster will be on the conceptual and classical epistemological issues concerning experts and expertise including:

• What is expertise?

• What is the function of expertise or what are its desiderata respectively?

• What kinds of expertise are there?

• Is there a reasonable cognitive threshold for being an expert?

• What is expert knowledge and how to represent it?

• How can a layperson identify experts and rationally distinguish between experts and frauds?

• What is metaexpertise, who possesses it and which are the criteria for it?

• Can there be rational disagreement between experts and, if so, how can we account for it?

• Do we have any reasonable alternative to expertise or is our trust in experts plainly unavoidable?

Invited Speakers:

Rainer Bromme (University of Muenster)

Harry Collins (Cardiff University)

Alvin I. Goldman (Rutgers University)

Jörg Hardy (Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St. Petersburg)

Oliver R. Scholz (University of Muenster)

Contact:

If you have any questions regarding the conferences do not hesitate to contact the local organizers:

Muenster:

Christian Quast ([email protected])

Markus Seidel ([email protected])

Ghent:

Laszlo Kosolosky ([email protected])

Tilburg:

Dominik Klein ([email protected])

Jan Sprenger ([email protected])