The Wrong Experts

May 6, 2023 Sociocultural Issues No Comments

The basic cognitive illusion makes us not see what is always there. Domain experts may be especially prone to this precisely because of their conceptual expertise. Thus, where the mind is invisibly involved, the experts of the day are occasionally the wrong experts.

Experts are necessary.

This text should not give another impression. We need experts. In a scientific age, they are needed to safeguard the science. Without them, we go backward, and we need to go forward.

Also in the scientific endeavor itself.

Remember history.

Just two centuries ago, many medical experts were still advocating for scarifications, bloodsuckers, and clysmata to rebalance bodily fluids in accordance with Galenic theories that lasted eighteen centuries but no more. Of course, there was empathy and placebo, but science…

So, can all experts of an era be the wrong experts? Yes.

Even over centuries? Even in the name of some irrational theory that seems rational to all? Yes.

Science as antidote

The Napoleonic era changed many things, including the urge for a more scientific worldview and practice. It also brought well-deserved emancipation from previous experts.

Science brought more objectivity.

Great!

But with two cautions:

‘Science’ can become a new creed, incorporated by experts without the necessary respect for scientific methodology.
Scientific explanations start from axioms that are sometimes implicit. If all experts adhere to these, they can remain implicit and untested for long.

One can see both at play in present-day healthcare and more: criminology, education, politics, etc. Generally, present-day science is very good in the conceptual domain, bad in the subconceptual from its inception since the latter was implicitly neglected or filtered out from ‘hard science.’

Noteworthy, this is also becoming relevant to the world of A.I., in which experts frequently have engineering minds and an uneasy appreciation of human depth.

Where depth is involved, present-day science is deficient.

Please see Rationality – Science – Technology. The situation is pretty dramatic.

This also means that many present-day experts are the wrong experts. As you can see, this leads to an awkward situation. The experts need their authority on which we need to rely. Meanwhile, fundamental changes need to be realized. We need a Kuhnian progression — challenging enough by itself and even more with so many vested interests.

Modern specialized, knowledge-based society doesn’t make it easier.

The correct expertise

This encompasses knowledge and expertise on the domain of Compassion, basically. At present, it needs to start with insight into mind-body unity. The correct experts either combine this with their conceptual domain knowledge or work in a team realizing the combination.

The ideal case may be a mosaic of combinations. Nobody is perfect, but each expert needs at least some openness and insights into the what and the why of Compassion, both being about much more than is generally thought.

Wanted: Wisdom

First of all, in general education, then also in specialization.

After that, it is the responsibility of every expert to keep working on an open vision. Experts may thus feel what more is needed for optimal therapy/management. One expert should not wait for any other to do so.

If a good idea turns up from an expert or from outside, the field should be ready, not try to get rid of it for the mere sake of business as usual.

The COVID lesson

See COVID: Why Hiding the Mind?

There is breathtakingly much work to do.