ABSTRACT
Knowledge, as described in Chapter 4, is socially produced and organised. How knowledge is governed is central to the question of fairness. The judgements people are able to make depend on how open their society is, the degree to which information is made freely available, the extent to which research can be undertaken to explore issues, the nature of their education and the extent to which they can participate in decision-making at all levels. And, finally, it depends on how reliable the source is: here, this is not a question of epistemics but that place where knowledge meets trust – it is a question of ethics:
Whether or not the expert’s reporting that p will give the recipient good reasons for believing p will depend on the recipient’s perception of the reliability of the expert’s testimony, which in turn will depend on an assessment of the expert’s character ([Hardwig] 1991:700) Has the expert been responsible enough to keep herself informed of developments in the field? Has she been conscientious, and realistic in her self-assessment of how reliable a judgement she is able to produce? To answer such questions is to make a statement about both moral and epistemic character.
