Epistemic Trespassing

Posted by Doug_Huffman 4 years, 9 months ago to Philosophy
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Nathan Ballantyne
Mind, Volume 128, Issue 510, April 2019, Pages 367–395, https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzx042
Published: 12 February 2018

Abstract
Epistemic trespassers judge matters outside their field of expertise. Trespassing is ubiquitous in this age of interdisciplinary research and recognizing this will require us to be more intellectually modest.

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  • Posted by Analog_Kid 4 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    What does this even mean???

    Are you sanctioning this condescending belief that only those "in the field of expertise" can opine on said field?

    So just because Ayn Rand didn't have a degree in economics she should have exercised intellectual "modesty" and never mentioned capitalism at all, ever because she didn't have the arbitrary, subjectively defined honorific of "expert" in this field? Mon Dieu!

    Not trying to argue here, I'm legit trying to understand your point and I thank you for the clarification, especially if I misunderstood.
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  • Posted by Analog_Kid 4 years, 9 months ago
    "...will require us to be more intellectually modest"

    LOL, okay Officer Karen of the Thought Police. I'll try to stop using my rational faculty when it comes to observing facts of reality and commenting on them.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 4 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Intellectually modest. Well...I DO tell me kids that it pays to act stupid sometimes. But, that's not what I mean. I mean to do it like Muhammad Ali's old "rope a dope". Haha...
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  • Posted by 4 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Sigh. All those years of education and training wasted if logic will suffice entirely.

    I suppose it was inevitable with the denigration of professionalism.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 4 years, 9 months ago
    That's like saying, "Hey! You can't use logic over here! Only in your own area..."
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  • Posted by 4 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    [T]his will require us to be more intellectually modest.

    Collectives may BAN. Individuals must exercise discretion.
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  • Posted by Lucky 4 years, 9 months ago
    Enforcing rules against this 'trespassing' is the job of government licensing agencies. It stops good designers from calling themselves architects, and good therapists from identifying as psychologists.
    It is meant to protect the public against imposters. Maybe, what it clearly does is protect the insiders from competition.
    Comments about climate change are sneered at or censored out if the source is not a peer reviewed qualified climate scientist, that is, a club member. Likewise, comments about religion were once banned unless from a qualified theologian or priest.

    While arguments can go back and forward as to the 'utility' of this kind of banning, it is contrary to Objectivism which holds that opinions and expertise are to be judged by the public and valued by payment.
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