Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

I leave you this fine evening with an essay by Amartya Sen. Please note that Sen is an economist. He has no normative expertise and hence no normative authority. Let me explain why that matters. If Sen makes an economic claim, then, since he is an expert in that field, one has reason to believe what he says (unless, of course, one is also an expert in that field, in which case one can make up one's own mind on the matter). By contrast, if Sen makes a normative claim, one has no more reason to believe what he says than to believe what any randomly selected person says. This doesn't mean that Sen can't make normative arguments. He can. But unless you accept his normative premises, you have no reason to accept the normative conclusion he draws from them. What I'm trying to prevent is a fallacious appeal to authority. Sen's economic authority does not make him an authority in physics, linguistics, carpentry, tennis, law, poetry, or morality. Authority does not transfer.