[PHILOS-L] REMINDER: Call for Papers “The Many Faces of Expertise” Special issue of the journal Disputatio
andrei moldovan
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Call for Papers: “The Many Faces of Expertise”
Special issue of the journal Disputatio: International Journal of Philosophy
The main aim of the special issue is to advance the investigation on the philosophy of expertise and expert knowledge by bringing to light 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. The existence of gender bias in the construction of scientific knowledge is a main topic of research in philosophy of science. But gender bias is likely to affect the construction and attribution of expertise as well. The many ways in which gender differences affect the distribution and perception of expertise in society calls for careful investigation.
- Cultural and social factors that influence the adscription of expertise. Adscriptions of expertise are notoriously problematic for their highly contextual nature, with factors such as social hierarchy or cultural differences being potential sources of variability.
- Experimental approaches to study of the nature of expertise and its attribution.Experimental methods have proved to be a powerful instrument to replace unsystematic appeals to intuitions as a source of data for testing hypotheses. These are good reasons to expect promising results from applying this methodology to questions concerning the contextual factors that influence attribution of expertise.
- Disagreement between experts. Solving experts’ disagreement is critical to the resolution of scientific and technological public controversies (Beebe et al. 2019). The factors, political, moral or cultural, that may influence expert opinion, may lead to different interpretations of empirical evidence, and may ultimately lead to disagreement.
- Expertise and critical thinking. While appeals to expert opinion have received significant attention in the literature devoted to argumentation and critical thinking, there is more work to be done on the question concerning how our critical thinking abilities are constrained by ignorance of a particular field of knowledge, making appeal to expert opinion a necessary epistemic route to gaining knowledge (Ballantyne et al 2022).
- Testimonial Injustice and trust in experts. The concept of trust is central to discussions of epistemic and testimonial injustice, recent contributions to this topic addressing questions about the normative role that experts might play within such contexts (Altanian & Baghramian 2023).
- Pseudo-expertise and its many faces. While the mechanisms that motivate and promote pseudo-science have been studied extensively, there are many other questions that call for careful analysis, including the way in which pseudo-expertise relates to trespassing of expertise from one discipline to another (Fuhrer 2021), or the way in which self-perception affects our self-attribution of knowledge and skills (Dunning 2012).
- Trust in experts and trust in social institutions. Studies have shown correlations between political orientation and trust in state institutions, on the one hand, and trust in experts, on the other (Pew Research Center 2019). This invites reflection on how trust in experts is motivated by political views and by the perception that people have of the credibility of political institutions (Grundmann 2022).
- Expertise and regulatory science. The fundamental role that experts play in regulatory bodies requires careful analysis of how committees work within governmental agencies, of the criteria on the basis of which they are selected, and on how consensus is built in these contexts (Grundmann 2009).
Editors of the special issue:
Ana Cuevas Badallo
Obdulia Torres González
Andrei Moldovan
Please submit your proposal here: https://www.editorialmanager.com/disputatio/default2.aspx
When submitting your paper please select “Special Issue: The Many Faces of Expertise”.
For more information, visit: https://sciendo.com/journal/DISP
And also: https://philevents.org/event/show/138946
Deadline: 1st of December 2025
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