The Semblance of Transparency

Expertise as a Social Good and an Ideology in Enlightened Societies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3924474
AutoresThomas Broman (autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen27
Número1
Páginas188-208
Fecha de publicación2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaOsiris (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0369-7827 • E-ISSN: 1933-8287
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/667827
OpenAlexW2057358766
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas11

Our modern idea of scientific expertise is compounded from two historically distinct elements: occupational expertise and the expertise claimed by scientists as privileged knowers of truths about the world. This article examines the historical roots of these two kinds of expertise in terms of the conceptual separation of theory and practice and the social status of scholars. In the Enlightenment, the value of theoretical knowledge began to be measured against its ability to guide action, and scientific knowledge acquired a public role as the ideological justification for the reform of society. The consequences of these changes are illustrated by Condorcet's writings on education during the French Revolution and discussions of science and the public in the 1940s and 1950s

Conservatism · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, Science, and History