CFP: The Many Faces of Expertise

Call for Submissions: 

“The Many Faces of Expertise”

VII edition of Jornadas Novatores

https://novatores.usal.es

27-28 of February 2025, Salamanca

“Jornadas Novatores” is an annual 2-day conference dedicated to topics in philosophy of science and technology, but also open to contributions in related branches of philosophy, including epistemology, argumentation theory, philosophy of language and mind, feminist philosophy etc. The next edition of “Jornadas Novatores” invites contributions that advance research on the topic of expertise and its relation to a broad range of issues of social relevance. 

         The topic of expertise and expert knowledge has gained momentum in the last decade, and it now occupies a central position in philosophy. Many important issues related to the nature and social function of experts have been discussed in depth. The analysis of the concept has led to identifying levels of expert knowledge, and the debate about its nature has distinguished objective (knowledge-based) approaches from reputational or functional approaches, for which the credentials and social role are essential to the attribution of expertise. From an epistemological perspective, expertise is generally understood as a combination of theoretical knowledge, skills and experience, but the exact relation between them is still under discussion. In argumentation theory, the appeal to expert opinion is treated as a special kind of argument, the evaluation criteria and strength of which is a matter of dispute. The many social and political dimensions of the impact of expertise on democratic societies have also been addressed, including the intricate problem of the asymmetry of power and responsibility that comes with the distribution of expertise in society. 

These discussions have also brought to light questions about expertise and expert knowledge that have received less attention. The main aim of our 2-day conference is to advance these discussions by including questions and methods of research that have remained peripheral to the central debates on expertise, as well as to build bridges between philosophical research on the topic and other perspectives. We seek proposals that critically examine topics such as, but not limited to, the following:

-       Gender bias and expertise

-       Cultural and social factors that influence the adscription of expertise

-       Experimental approaches to study of the nature of expertise and its attribution

-       Disagreement between experts in the context of scientific and technological public controversies 

-       Expertise and critical thinking

-       Testimonial injustice and trust in experts 

-       The many forms of pseudo-expertise

-       Trust in experts and trust in social institutions 

-       The relation between trust, expertise and regulatory science. 

Invited speakers

Reiner Grundmann (University of Nottingham): “Experts and expertise: A sociological view”

Michel Croce (University of Genoa): “Experts, Epistemic Authorities, and the Problem of Public Exposure”

Participation

We invite abstract submissions for 30-minute talks (with 10 minutes for discussion in a 40-minute slot). Please send your proposals (around 1000 words long, excluding bibliography, and prepared for blind review) to [email protected] before 7th of January 2025. 

Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of a high-indexed journal. 

Organising Committee USAL

Ana Cuevas Badallo

Obdulia Torres González

Andrei Moldovan

Daniel Labrador Montero

Mariano Martín Villuendas

Benedicto Acosta Díaz

Ángel Álvarez Marcos

Esther Palacios Mateos

Pilar López Morales