[lit-ideas] Re: Faith
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 11:28:20 -0400
John McCreery wrote:
"I still have problems with that 'headcount of experts.' It might make sense
in a world in which all experts were truly peers regarded by each other as
equally expert but this is not the world in which I live. In my world,
experts are ranked by reputation and, for example, the opinions of one
Thomas Aquinas outweigh those of any number of parish priests."
But the two examples I gave, that of the fight over Christian fundamentalism
and the nature of philosophy were precisely between experts who did not
consider the others as peers. It is now true that the opinions of Thomas
outweigh those of parish priests but it was most certainly not true shortly
after Thomas' death when the Church rejected his teaching. It is because
the locus of expertise is distributed throughout a group of people that
there will always be the question of who is an expert on any particular
issue. In other words, I am assuming that all experts don't consider each
other as peers and this is a necessary condition for the production of
knowledge. If there were no question as to who is an expert, then I am not
sure it would make sense to talk of an expert in that case. The production
of knowledge is always agonistic.
John raised the issue of the Pope speaking ex cathedra. This is
interesting. Is it an instance of expertise? Leave aside the religious
issues: Does the assertion that a proposition is beyond question represent a
statement of expertise? Here I think of some scientists who argue that
evolution is a fact, beyond question, though its mechanisms are not yet
fully clear. While I do think that evolution is a fact, it is the beyond
question part that always starts me wondering whether the assertion has
moved from a scientific discourse to something else. Put differently, it
doesn't seem right for an expert to claim that something is beyond question.
It seems to run counter to the agon of knowledge production.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Toronto, ON
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