Appeal to Expert Opinion: Arguments from Authority (Google eBook)

Douglas Walton

Penn State Press, Nov 1, 2010 - Philosophy

Contents

• THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORITY: 1
• 1 Peirces Four Methods of Fixing Belief: 3
• 2 Science As the Modern Authoritarianism: 5
• 3 The Culture of Technical Control: 9
• 4 Different Conceptions of Scientific Knowledge: 13
• 5 Expert Testimony in Court: 17
• 6 A Complex Type of Argument: 19
• 7 Being Intimidated by Experts: 22
• 8 Questioning an Expert Opinion: 23
• 9 The Problem of Fallacies: 28
• 10 Finding a Middle Way: 29
• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: 32
• 1 Overview of Developments: 33
• 2 Plato on Socratic Questioning of Experts: 35
• 3 Aristotle on Dialectical Arguments: 38
• 4 The Medieval View of Argument from Authority: 43
• 5 Galileos Challenge to Proof by Authority: 46
• 6 The PortRoyal Logic: 48
• 7 Lockes Account of Argumentum ad Verecundiam: 52
• 8 Bentham on Appeal to Authority: 55
• 9 The Meaning of Verecundia: 57
• 10 Where to Begin: 60
• IDENTIFICATION OF THE TYPE OF ARGUMENT: 63
• 1 Appeal to Reverence: 64
• 2 Knowledge Versus Appeal to Authority: 67
• 3 Testimony of Authoritative Sources: 69
• 4 Varying Definitions of Ad Verecundiam: 72
• 5 The Ambiguity of Authority: 76
• 6 Advertising Testimonials: 79
• 7 Position to Know: 82
• 8 Authority and Expertise: 84
• 9 Terminological Choice: 86
• 10 Provisional Conclusions: 88
• FORM OF THE ARGUMENT: 91
• 1 Deductive Forms: 92
• 2 Probable Inferences from a Knowledge Base: 96
• 3 Inductive Forms: 98
• 4 Presumptive Forms: 100
• 5 Expert Systems: 104
• 6 Informal Logic and Expert Systems: 107
• 7 The Concept of an Expert: 110
• 8 Reliability and BiasSubjective Factors: 114
• 9 Human and Machine Expertise: 117
• 10 Evaluating the Form in a Context of Dialogue: 120
• DIALECTICAL ASPECTS: 126
• 1 The Case of the Deadly Radar Gun: 127
• 2 The Case of Lorenzos Oil: 134
• 3 Reported Controversies: 137
• 4 Appeal to Expert Opinion in Political Debate: 140
• 5 The Context of Dialogue: 144
• 6 Style of Presentation: 149
• 7 The Secondary Level of Dialogue: 153
• 8 Critical Questions and Logical Form: 157
• 9 Drawing Inferences from Expert Opinion: 159
• 10 Dialectical Structure of Appeal to Expert Opinion: 164
• EXPERT TESTIMONY AS LEGAL EVIDENCE: 167
• 1 The Adversarial Setting of a Trial: 168
• 2 The Battle of the Experts: 171
• 3 Junk Science in the Courts: 176
• 4 The GoItAlone Expert: 179
• 5 Legal Criteria for Scientific Testimony: 181
• 6 Hearsay Evidence in Expert Testimony: 185
• 7 Science As a Body of Knowledge: 188
• 8 Solutions to the Junk Science Problem: 192
• 9 The Framework of Dialogue in a Trial: 194
• 10 The Consistency Critical Question: 197
• CRITICAL QUESTIONS: 199
• 1 Premises and Critical Questions: 200
• 2 Early Accounts: 202
• 3 Accounts in the 1970s: 205
• 4 Recent Accounts: 208
• 5 Personal Reliability and Bias: 213
• 6 The Trustworthiness Question: 215
• 7 Position to Know: 217
• 8 General Acceptance in a Field: 218
• 9 General Recommendations: 222
• 10 Using Critical Questions for Evaluation: 225
• EXPLAINING THE FALLACY: 230
• 1 Suspect and Fallacious Appeals: 231
• 2 Specific Defaults Cited: 234
• 3 Dogmatic Appeals to Authority: 239
• 4 The Halo Effect and Milgrams Experiments: 243
• 5 Institutional Setting of Authority: 245
• 6 Fallible Arguments Absolutized: 247
• 7 Confusing Two Types of Authority: 250
• 8 Profiles of Dialogue: 253
• 9 Subfallacies: 255
• 10 Summary: 257
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 263
• INDEX: 273

Bibliographic information

• Title: Appeal to Expert Opinion: Arguments from Authority
• Author: Douglas Walton
• Publisher: Penn State Press, 2010
• ISBN: 0271041943, 9780271041940
• Subjects: Mathematics / Logic; Philosophy / General; Political Science / General