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26Patient Expertise and Medical Authority: Epistemic Implications for the Provider–Patient RelationshipJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 49 (1): 58-71. 2024.The provider–patient relationship is typically regarded as an expert-to-novice relationship, and with good reason. Providers have extensive education and experience that have developed in them the competence to treat conditions better and with fewer harms than anyone else. However, some researchers argue that many patients with long-term conditions (LTCs), such as arthritis and chronic pain, have become “experts” at managing their LTC. Unfortunately, there is no generally agreed-upon conception …Read more
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10Navigating Contested Harms and Competing Metaphysics: Humility and Ethics ConsultationAmerican Journal of Bioethics 21 (6): 34-36. 2021.Baby A1 was born prematurely with severe encephalopathy, injured brainstem, and a potentially injured spinal cord. He had no response to pain or other external stimuli. The neonatal team unanimousl...
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5An Argument for Standardized Ethical Directives for Secular Healthcare ServicesJournal of Clinical Ethics 33 (3): 175-188. 2022.We argue that the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities has endorsed a facilitation approach to clinical ethics consultation that asserts that bioethicists can offer moral recommendations that are well-grounded in bioethical consensus. We claim that the closest thing the field currently has to a citable, nationally endorsed bioethical consensus are the 22 Core References used to construct the questions for the Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) exam. We acknowledge that the C…Read more
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5Responding to Fiester’s Critique of a Bioethical Consensus ProjectJournal of Clinical Ethics 33 (3): 198-201. 2022.We respond to Autumn Fiester’s critique that our proposed bioethical consensus project amounts to “ethical hegemony,” and evaluate her claim that ethicists should restrict themselves to “mere process” recommendations. We argue that content recommendations are an inescapable aspect of clinical ethics consultation, and our primary concern is that, without standardization of bioethical consensus, our field will vacillate among appeals to the disparate claims in the 22 “Core References,” unsustainab…Read more
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45The Harm of Premature Death, Immortality - The Transhumanist ChallengeEthical Perspectives 16 (4): 435-458. 2009.Although an age-old problem, the debate over immortality has become reanimated in light of recent advances in life extension technologies, accompanied by an ever-growing body of enthusiasts, both within academic circles as well as the public in general. For these people, death is no longer a natural process, but a disease, and one that might be prevented. It seems that the desire for immortality is a result, in part, of a profound sense of incompleteness and frustration that death will rob us of…Read more
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38Expertise: a philosophical introductionBloomsbury Academic. 2020.What does it mean to be an expert? What sort of authority do experts really have? And what role should they play in today's society? Addressing why ever larger segments of society are skeptical of what experts say, Expertise: A Philosophical Introduction reviews contemporary philosophical debates and introduces what an account of expertise needs to accomplish in order to be believed. Drawing on research from philosophers and sociologists, chapters explore widely held accounts of expertise and un…Read more
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4A history and philosophy of expertise: the nature and limits of authorityBloomsbury Academic. 2021.In this comprehensive tour of the long history and philosophy of expertise, from ancient Greece to the 20th century, Jamie Carlin Watson tackles the question of expertise and why we can be skeptical of what experts say, making a valuable contribution to contemporary philosophical debates on authority, testimony, disagreement and trust. His review sketches out the ancient origins of the concept, discussing its early association with cunning, skill and authority and covering the sort of training t…Read more
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43Epistemic neighbors: trespassing and the range of expert authoritySynthese 200 (5): 1-21. 2022.The world is abuzz with experts who can help us in domains where we understand too little to help ourselves. But sometimes experts in one domain carry their privileged status into domains outside their specialization, where they give advice or otherwise presume to speak authoritatively. Ballantyne calls these boundary crossings “epistemic trespassing” and argues that they often violate epistemic norms. In the few cases where traveling in other domains is permissible, Ballantyne suggests there sh…Read more
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23Critical ThinkingInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2021.Critical Thinking Critical Thinking is the process of using and assessing reasons to evaluate statements, assumptions, and arguments in ordinary situations. The goal of this process is to help us have good beliefs, where “good” means that our beliefs meet certain goals of thought, such as truth, usefulness, or rationality. Critical thinking is widely regarded … Continue reading Critical Thinking →
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11The Advent of the Professional Ethicist: Moral Expertise and Health-Care Ethics CertificationPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 63 (3): 570-588. 2020.With the development of the Healthcare Ethics Consultant Certification offered through the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, the practice of clinical ethics has taken a decisive step into professionalization. Like other clinical consulting services that have trod this path—chaplaincy, genetic counseling, social work, case management, and so on1—clinical ethics started with academic and fellowship training programs and has identified a set of standards of practice....
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71What Experts Could Not BeSocial Epistemology 33 (1): 74-87. 2019.A common philosophical account of expertise contends that (a) the good of expertise lies in the fact that it is grounded in reliably true beliefs or knowledge in a domain and (b) rejecting this truth-linked view threatens the authority of experts and opens one to epistemic relativism. I argue that both of these claims are implausible, and I show how epistemic authority and objectivity can be grounded in the current state of understanding and skill in a domain. Further, I argue that what I call a…Read more
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27Justification, Epistemic. 2016.Epistemic Justification We often believe what we are told by our parents, friends, doctors, and news reporters. We often believe what we see, taste, and smell. We hold beliefs about the past, the present, and the future. Do we have a right to hold any of these beliefs? Are any supported by evidence? Should we … Continue reading Justification, Epistemic →
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31Moral Expertise: New Essays from Theoretical and Clinical Bioethics (edited book)Springer International Publishing. 2018.This collection addresses whether ethicists, like authorities in other fields, can speak as experts in their subject matter. Though ethics consultation is a growing practice in medical contexts, there remain difficult questions about the role of ethicists in professional decision-making. Contributors examine the nature and plausibility of moral expertise, the relationship between character and expertise, the nature and limits of moral authority, how one might become a moral expert, and the trust…Read more
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2Because of increased interest in the marine and atmospheric sciences in elemental carbon, or black carbon or soot carbon, and because of the difficulties in analyzing or even defining this pervasive component of particulate carbon, it has become quite important to have appropriate reference materials for intercomparison and quality control. The NIST "urban dust" Standard Reference Material® SRM 1649a is useful in this respect, in part because it comprises a considerable array of inorganic and or…Read more
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32What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues by David Coady, 2011 Malden, MA, Wiley‐Blackwellx + 202 pp, US $93.95 (hb) US $36.95 (pb) (review)Journal of Applied Philosophy 30 (4): 400-402. 2013.
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Humanity at the Limit: The Impact of the Holocaust Experience on Jews and Christians. Edited by Michael A. SignerThe European Legacy 8 (5): 700-700. 2003.
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11Metacide: In the Pursuit of Excellence (edited book)Rodopi. 2010.If philosophy addresses concrete ethical challenges, then what shifts in basic concepts must be made to the discipline in the darkness of our genocidal world? What anti-genocidal strains are in Western philosophy? Are we “really” rejects and/ or “still of intrinsic worth” when we fail our excellence tests? How are we represented and how do we participate in representations? Are representational forms historical in origin and development? Is genocide indissolubly linked to our degradation and des…Read more
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38Many irrelevant evils: a response to the Bayesian problem of evilInternational Journal of Philosophy and Theology 75 (4): 365-378. 2014.Robert Bass argues that the evidential problem of evil can be strengthened by the application of a Bayesian conditionalization argument. I argue that, whatever the merits of Bayesian conditionalization arguments, they are unsuccessful in substantiating the evidential problem of evil because the problem of evil doesn’t meet the necessary conditions for applying the formula informatively. I offer two examples to show that a successful application of the Bayesian formula must pass two tests, the co…Read more
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6A Priori Justification and ExperienceDissertation, Florida State University. 2009.This dissertation is about a priori justification and its relationship to experiential evidence. I begin with the assumption that a priori justification is justification that is independent of experience. It has been argued that putative examples of a priori justification are implausible because they are not, in any significant sense, independent of experience. My two central claims are that (a) a subject is plausibly justified a priori in believing a proposition only if the belief is not revisa…Read more
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20Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning WellBloomsbury Publishing. 2015.'You shouldn't drink too much. The Earth is round. Milk is good for your bones.' Are any of these claims true? How can you tell? Can you ever be certain you are right? For anyone tackling philosophical logic and critical thinking for the first time, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning Well provides a practical guide to the skills required to think critically. From the basics of good reasoning to the difference between claims, evidence and arguments, Robert Arp and Jamie Carlin Watson…Read more
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7What's Good on Tv: Understanding Ethics Through TelevisionWiley-Blackwell. 2011.What's Good on TV? Understanding Ethics Through Television presents an introduction to the basic theories and concepts of moral philosophy using concrete examples from classic and contemporary television shows. Utilizes clear examples from popular contemporary and classic television shows, such as The Office, Law and Order, Star Trek and Family Guy, to illustrate complex philosophical concepts Designed to be used as a stand-alone or supplementary introductory ethics text Features case studies, s…Read more
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29Dilemma arguments against naturalismEpisteme 11 (2): 1-15. 2014.Albert Casullo (2000, 2003) and Shane Oakley (2011) argue that dilemma arguments against epistemic naturalism, such as those offered by Laurence BonJour (1998) and Harvey Siegel (1984), are such that, whatever strength they have against naturalism applies equally to moderate rationalist accounts of a priori justification. They conclude that dilemma arguments are, therefore, insufficient for establishing an advantage for moderate rationalism over naturalized epistemology. I argue that both Casull…Read more
Jamie Watson
Young Harris College
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Young Harris CollegeDepartment Of PhilosophyAssistant Professor
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Applied Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |