Lady Hallett and a Socratic enquiry

SOCRATES: I was walking through the agora after having had a discussion with an impetuous young man who argued that a good orator could win a debate on any subject, even though he knew nothing about it. This left me rather baffled, so it was a pleasure to fall in with the lawyer Lady Hallett, on whose good sense one could always rely…

SOCRATES: Good morning, Lady Hallett. Whence, whither, and wherefore?

LADY HALLETT: From home, O Socrates, to chair the inquiry into the Covid pandemic.

S: Clearly, then, you are an expert in pandemics.

LH: Far from it, O Socrates.

S: Then where is your expertise?

LH: In carrying out inquiries.

S: Then could you carry out an inquiry into anything?

LH: But of course. That is the job of a judge.

S: Knowing nothing about the topic under enquiry?

LH: Naturally. I shall learn about it when I hear the experts.

S: And will you then become an expert in pandemics?

LH: It all depends what you mean by an expert, O Socrates.

S: Please tell me, then, what you mean.

LH: In this case, by being able to judge the value of what experts tell me and make recommendations as to the handling of future pandemics on the strength of that evidence.

S: So someone who is not an expert will be able to produce judgments by listening to experts?

LH: And questioning them, O Socrates, which is where a judge’s expertise lies.

S: But how, lacking expertise yourself, will you know what questions to ask, or whether experts are right or not?

LH: Obviously, I shall judge from other experts.

S: So would you not then think experts far better judges of the work of other experts than non-experts?

LH: Obviously I would if they, like me, really had the skill of judging.

S: Quite right, Lady Hallett! I myself have often said how important it is to know one knows nothing.