The Elite Nature of Expertise

Historians of science have detailed the contingent nature of expertise in the past, which was associated with particular ethics and recording techniques. Expertise has historically been elitist, with enclosed societies appointing themselves as official documenters of events, creating books accessible only to other experts. This process was not democratic but benefitted society in various ways. The starting point of expertise was the delineation of exclusive communities defining who had the right to make factual claims, free from theology to avoid conflicts.