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Experts: Which Ones Should You Trust?
Author(s) -
GOLDMAN ALVIN I.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
philosophy and phenomenological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1933-1592
pISSN - 0031-8205
DOI - 10.1111/j.1933-1592.2001.tb00093.x
Subject(s) - citation , analytic philosophy , computer science , epistemology , library science , philosophy , contemporary philosophy
Mainstream,epistemology,is a highly theoretical and abstract enterprise. Traditional epistemologists rarely present their deliberations as critical to the practical problems of life, unless one supposes-as Hume, for example, did not-that skeptical worries should trouble us in our everyday,affairs. But some issues in epistemology,are both theoretically interesting and practically quite pressing. That holds of the problem,to be discussed here: how,lay- persons should evaluate the testimony of experts and decide which of two or more rival experts is most credible. It is of practical importance because in a complex, highly specialized world people are constantly confronted with situ-