Location
University of Windsor
Document Type
Paper
Keywords
appeal to expert authority, argument scheme, authority, expertise, trust, normative pragmat-ics, testimony
Start Date
18-5-2011 9:00 AM
End Date
21-5-2011 5:00 PM
Abstract
As appeals to expert authority shift from “fallacies” to “argument schemes,” argumentation theorists are called on to provide critical questions for assessing them. I argue that current treatments focus too heavily on assessing expertise, and not enough on judging trustworthiness. I propose instead a norma-tive pragmatic account of the rational force of the appeal to expert authority, one that emphasizes the ex-pert's actions in constructing his/her own legitimate trustworthiness.
Creative Commons License
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Accounting for the force of the appeal to authority
University of Windsor
As appeals to expert authority shift from “fallacies” to “argument schemes,” argumentation theorists are called on to provide critical questions for assessing them. I argue that current treatments focus too heavily on assessing expertise, and not enough on judging trustworthiness. I propose instead a norma-tive pragmatic account of the rational force of the appeal to expert authority, one that emphasizes the ex-pert's actions in constructing his/her own legitimate trustworthiness.
