{"id":776,"date":"2026-07-14T14:43:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/?page_id=776"},"modified":"2026-07-14T14:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:43:36","slug":"authority-in-public-deliberation-an-argumentation-approach","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/authority-in-public-deliberation-an-argumentation-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Authority in public deliberation: An argumentation approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Dr<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr Marcin Lewinski – NOVA University
This event took place on Monday 28 November 2022 at 11:30<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n


Nearly all cases of deliberation \u2013 from private consumer decisions to complex public policies \u2013 rely on the authority of some external experts who advise, recommend, or warn us to do \u03c6 rather than \u03c8. We need such experts, as we cannot ourselves be experts on all the things we decide on. The question to be addressed in this talk is how to evaluate experts\u2019 authority in an applicable way. While this is a complex issue discussed in depth in social epistemology and political theory, I will turn to argumentation theory as a discipline that provides practical solutions to this question. To this end, I will first identify challenges and paradoxes of relying on authority and its various forms discussed in the literature. I will then discuss various ways to schematise arguments from authority \/ from expert opinion in argumentation theory. Based on this overview, I will propose a novel approach that distinguishes between arguments from experts\u2019 authority and arguments to experts\u2019 authority. I will conclude by arguing that this rearranged structure allows us to understand and critique authority in public deliberation in a way that is apt for computational modelling.

 

Most recent references:

Lewinski,M.(2022).Challenging authority with argumentation: The pragmatics of aguments from and to authority. Languages, 7(3), 207,https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/languages7030207.

Zenker, F., & Yu, S. (2022). Authority argument schemes, types, and critical questions. Argumentation, online first, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10503-022-09573-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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