Salmon, Merrilee (2018) The Role of (Scientific) Experts in a Democracy. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

In every poll asking the public to rank professions by prestige, scientists excel. They command great respect and earn high marks for trustworthiness. They consistently compare well to judges and rank much higher than lawmakers. Scientists also outrank polltakers, which I suppose reveals the public’s view that polls are not scientific. In democratic societies, however, despite general esteem for scientists, political authorities and members of the public often ignore or override what scientists have to say about science. In what follows, I want to consider three major roles that experts play in democratic societies, and to take a brief look at how experts handle some cases when their authority is challenged.

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Salmon, Merrilee
Keywords:	experts, democracy, challenges to science
Subjects:	General Issues > Science and Society
Depositing User:	Ms Merrilee Salmon
Date Deposited:	02 Oct 2018 13:40
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2018 13:40
Item ID:	15080
Subjects:	General Issues > Science and Society
Date:	8 June 2018
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15080

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