How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 196

degrees of expertise in sophisticated subjects without having ever attended a university. Further, it
should not be simply assumed that a person with a degree is an expert.
Of course, what is required to be an expert is often a matter of great debate. For example, some people
have (and do) claim expertise in certain (even all) areas because of a divine inspiration or a special gift.
The followers of such people accept such credentials as establishing the person's expertise while others
often see these self-proclaimed experts as deluded or even as charlatans. In other situations, people
debate over what sort of education and experience is needed to be an expert. Thus, what one person
may take to be a fallacious appeal another person might take to be a well supported line of reasoning.
Fortunately, many cases do not involve such debate.
The claim being made by the person is within her area(s) of expertise.
If a person makes a claim about some subject outside of his area(s) of expertise, then the person is not
an expert in that context. Hence, the claim in question is not backed by the required degree of expertise
and is not reliable.
It is very important to remember that because of the vast scope of human knowledge and skill it is
simply not possible for one person to be an expert on everything. Hence, experts will only be true
experts in respect to certain subject areas. In most other areas they will have little or no expertise. Thus,
it is important to determine what subject area a claim falls under.
It is also very important to note that expertise in one area does not automatically confer expertise in
another. For example, being an expert physicist does not automatically make a person an expert on
morality or politics. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked or intentionally ignored. In fact, a great
deal of advertising rests on a violation of this condition. As anyone who watches television knows, it is
extremely common to get famous actors and sports heroes to endorse products that they are not
qualified to assess. For example, a person may be a great actor, but that does not automatically make
him an expert on cars or shaving or underwear or diets or politics.
There is an adequate degree of agreement among the other experts in the subject in question.
If there is a significant amount of legitimate dispute among the experts within a subject, then it will
fallacious to make an Appeal to Authority using the disputing experts. This is because for almost any
claim being made and "supported" by one expert there will be a counterclaim that is made and
"supported" by another expert. In such cases an Appeal to Authority would tend to be futile. In such
cases, the dispute has to be settled by consideration of the actual issues under dispute. Since either side
in such a dispute can invoke experts, the dispute cannot be rationally settled by Appeals to Authority.
There are many fields in which there is a significant amount of legitimate dispute. Economics is a good
example of such a disputed field. Anyone who is familiar with economics knows that there are many
plausible theories that are incompatible with one another. Because of this, one expert economist could
sincerely claim that the deficit is the key factor while another equally qualified individual could assert
the exact opposite. Another area where dispute is very common (and well known) is in the area of
psychology and psychiatry. As has been demonstrated in various trials, it is possible to find one expert
that will assert that an individual is insane and not competent to stand trial and to find another equally
qualified expert who will testify, under oath, that the same individual is both sane and competent to
stand trial. Obviously, one cannot rely on an Appeal to Authority in such a situation without making a
fallacious argument. Such an argument would be fallacious since the evidence would not warrant
accepting the conclusion.
It is important to keep in mind that no field has complete agreement, so some degree of dispute is
acceptable. How much is acceptable is, of course, a matter of serious debate. It is also important to

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