Speaker's Series Mar. 8

Friday, March 8, 2019 - 15:00

Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation & Rhetoric along with the PhD in Argumentation Studies at the University of Windsor invite you to a talk by

 

Yanlin (Alan) Liao

Visiting Student Fellow

 

“The Legitimacy Crisis of Arguments from Expert Opinion: Can’t we trust experts?”

Abstract: Recent disputes on the strength of arguments from expert opinion (AEO) give rise to the legitimacy crisis of arguments from expert opinion. Moti Mizrahi (2013, 2016, 2017) claims that AEO are weak arguments with two independent justifications. Justification 1 is that AEO are weak arguments because empirical studies show that expert opinions for p do not make p significantly more likely to be true; while justification 2 is that AEO are weak arguments because empirical studies show that expert opinions are susceptible to the kinds of cognitive biases that novice opinions are susceptible to.

I intend to argue that these two justifications both completely fail in terms of irrelevancy, inconsistency, and insufficiency. As for justification 1, I first analyze four key issues of the recent disputes (Mizrahi 2013, 2016, 2017; Markus Seidel 2014, 2016; Martin Hinton 2015) and argue that Mizrahi’s argument is irrelevant and self-defeating (inconsistent). In addition to the review of the recent disputes, I also argue that Mizrahi’s argument is insufficient in two aspects. As for justification 2, I similarly argue that Mizrahi’s argument is self-defeating (inconsistent), insufficient and irrelevant.

 

Friday, March 8, 2019

3:00 pm

Chrysler Hall North, 1163

All are welcome

(519)253-3000