2005 Reports

What does it mean to trust in epistemic authority?

Origgi, Gloria

"At high-school in Italy many years ago I heard my teacher of Latin
say: 'Cicero’s prose is full of synecdoches'
. I had a vague idea of what a synecdoche
was, and ignored until then that one could characterize Cicero’s writing in this way.
Nevertheless, I relied on my teacher’s intellectual authority to acquire the belief that
Cicero’s prose is full of synecdoches, and today have a more precise idea of what my
teacher was talking about. Was I justified in any sense in uncritically accepting that
pronouncement by deferring to my teacher’s authority?"