Abstract

After distinguishing between moral and ethical expertise, I divide ethical expertise into five categories: knowledge of fact ; knowledge of procedure ; easily derivable knowledge of fact or procedure; skill ; and judgment. Having explained the five categories of expertise so that each turns out to be relatively unmysterious, I describe how I would counsel a fellow faculty member who sought my help with an “ethics case” because she regarded me as an “ethics expert.” I make clear the part each of the five categories of expertise would have in my counseling. In this way, I show that my ethical expertise is possible. I then consider stronger claims of ethical expertise, such as one finds in Gesang, “Are Moral Philosophers Moral Experts?” Bioethics 24: 153–9. We may divide experts by the demands of the role they fill: The greater the demands, the less plausible the claim of expertise. There are experts who: 1) merely know something specific and testify about it ; 2) claim to counsel ; 3) advise, that is, recommend courses of action ; 4) act as agents ; and 5) rule over us or at least claim the right to.