Epistemic Context and Community in Expert Evidence

Abstract

In this set of comments I want to take issue with Vázquez’s work from the point of view of epistemological considerations that, as I see them, are relevant for the proper understanding of the judicial context of fact-finding and its demands. I use these considerations to shed light over some aspects of such practice that may have an impact in the author’s proposal. To do so this paper is divided in three sections. The first section presents a critical synthesis of the Vázquez’s proposal. In the second section I argue that some discussions originated in epistemology should be included in the epistemological model offered by the author, in order to present a more complete image of the different epistemic interactions that take place during the process in question. In the third part I go back to consider the most salient proposals from Vázquez related to these issues in order to approach them from the point of view of these discussions.