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Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task

Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task

Published on: July 22, 2025

Are moral philosophers moral experts?

Bernward Gesang¹

¹Philosophisches Institut, University of Duesseldorf, Universitaetstr. 1, Duesseldorf 40225, Germany. gesangbe@gmx.de

|April 16, 2010

Summary

This study explores whether ethicists are moral experts, defining experts by correct judgments for the right reasons. It concludes moral philosophers are

Area of Science:

Ethics
Moral Philosophy
Epistemology

Background:

The existence and nature of moral expertise are debated.
Defining moral expertise requires understanding the justification of moral judgments.
Distinctions between moral and non-moral experience inform justification theories.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether ethicists qualify as moral experts.
To develop a coherence theory of moral justification.
To determine the conditions under which moral experts might exist.

Main Methods:

Analysis of the concept of moral expertise.
Development of a coherence theory of moral justification.
Examination of deductivism and coherence theory in relation to moral expertise.

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Main Results:

The existence of moral experts is contingent on how moral judgments are justified.
Both deductivism and coherence theory offer support for the possibility of moral experts.
Moral philosophers are proposed to be 'semi-experts' within a coherence framework.

Conclusions:

Moral expertise is possible but depends on the theory of moral justification employed.
A specific coherence theory suggests moral philosophers possess a form of expertise.
Further research into moral justification is needed to fully resolve the question of moral experts.