July Discussion Dinner: Why Should We Listen to Non-Domain Experts

First an organizational note: as we seek to more tightly integrate this activity with others organized by NYC Skeptics and to encourage everyone to join and support us, starting in August there will be a $10 fee to attend the monthly discussion dinner for non NYCS members. So if you are not already a member please visit http://nycskeptics.org/join and consider becoming one. And now to the topic at hand:

A recent episode of the Rationally Speaking podcast (http://bit.ly/MXAnsR) featured Jesse Prinz, a professor of philosophy at CUNY. The topic of the episode was human nature and evolutionary psychology, not philosophy. Similarly, Steven Pinker has also written extensively about human nature and evolutionary psychology, even though these areas are not in his domain of expertise. And what about science writers, like Carl Zimmer, who writes about science even though they are not even scientists? So what qualifies someone to write about a specific subject? Shouldn't they be domain experts on that subject?

Come to our monthly discussion dinner and share your views with us. And, as always, please remember that seating is limited, so RSVP soon and please be courteous to those on the waiting list and change your RSVP to NO if you decide not to come.