Learning to live with scientific expertise: Toward a theory of intellectual communalism for guiding science teaching

Abstract

AbstractA long–standing goal of science education is teaching students to be intellectually independent of scientific experts. This article proposes that this goal be abandoned as impossible to attain, and be replaced by a goal of intellectual communalism between scientists and nonscientists. The argument draws upon work demonstrating that epistemic dependence of nonexperts upon experts and of experts upon each other is an unavoidable characteristic of knowledge acquisition. This dependence implies both the need for trust in expertise and for expertise to be used responsibly. Faced with epistemic dependence, the alternative of intellectual communalism for science is recunimended in which nonscientists defer to scientists on matters of evidence for scientific knowledge claims, but use the combined judgment of scientists critically to assess alleged scientific expertise. It is claimed that scientists have no special experrise in the use of scientific knowledge, and that nonscientists must play an evaluative role in this regard. The sort of instruction proposed to achieve the goal of intellectual communalism consists of standard instruction in scientific knowledge, metascientific discussion about the nature of scientific knowledge and expertise, and instruction and practice in judging expertise. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.