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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

The End Of Expertise?

By The Daily Dish
Sep 6 2008, 4:38 AM ET

A bit from an interview by Harry Collins author of Rethinking Expertise:

I would say that the danger to democracy that my own disciplinesocial studies of scienceis not doing enough to combat is the collapse of the idea of expertise. Current social studies of science has difficulty with the notion of expertise. The attitude that anyone's opinion on any topic is equally valuable could spread, and there are some indications, such as widespread vaccine scares, that suggest it is happening. A world in which there is said to be no difference between those who know what they are talking about and those who don't is not one that anyone who thinks about it wants. Such a society would be like one's worst nightmare, exhibiting many of the characteristics of the most vile epochs of human history.



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