The main aim of my paper is to analyse whether experts have a distinctive testimonial status in society, or whether an expert's testimony requires considerable epistemic deference (expertism). I will try to argue that no matter how reliable a speaker is, this cannot in itself make it rationally acceptable for a hearer to accept their report without assessment of their trustworthiness. However, I admit that standing policy about an expert's trustworthiness, and the social climate concerning experts, which includes sophisticates social constrains in terms of possibility that experts have deceived us systematically, makes a scenario of deceit incompetence seem far less probable. Consequently, I will conclude that evidential standards favour of expert's testimony are less demanded and that they are attainable for ordinary hearers. |