Only an expert in some branch of psychology could understand why Patrick is behaving irrationally. But no expert is c...

EmmaOhanian April 23, 2021

Regarding "Expert" Term Shift

In this passage, it appears that we had to treat the variable of "expert in some branch of psychology" and "expert" (in the following sentence) as the same. But doesn't merely saying someone is an "expert" not necessarily translate to them being an "expert in some branch of psychology?" It feels like a huge term shift.

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ajcaviness February 24, 2022

^^ exactly my confusion here. Can someone explain.

Emil-Kunkin March 15, 2022

Hi @ajcaviness, you're right that there is a subtle shift in terminology here, but in this case it doesn't impact the argument. We are told that only an expert in psych would be able to do something, but no expert would do that.

We can assume that what is true of all experts is true of experts in psych. The psych experts are a subset of all experts.