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2023 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Truth Relativism, Science Skepticism and the Political Consequences

Author : Thomas Zoglauer

Published in: Truth and Fake in the Post-Factual Digital Age

Publisher: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

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Abstract

In his book Post-Truth, Steve Fuller, a leading exponent of Science and Technology Studies, defends truth relativism, criticizes scientific expertise, and argues that we are living since a long time in a post-truth age. Fuller views science as a power game, where power decides what is true and what is false. Donald Trump is particularly good at this power game and knows how to pass his personal opinion as a definite truth. The example of Fuller will be used to show how truth relativism and science skepticism contribute to the emergence of a post-truth society and may threaten democracy.

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next chapter Of Fakes and Frauds: Can Scientific “Hoaxes” Be a Legitimate Tool of Inquiry?
Footnotes
1
In the following, quotes from Nietzsche’s writings refer besides the English edition of his works also to the Kritische Studienausgabe (Nietzsche 1999, KSA), indicating the volume number (e.g. KSA 11).
 
2
Nietzsche literally says: “Against the positivism, which halts at phenomena – ‘There are only facts’ – I would say: no, facts are just what there aren’t, there are only interpretations” (Nietzsche 2003, p. 139; 1999, KSA 12, p. 315).
 
3
On the epistemic status of expert knowledge see: Zoglauer 2020, p. 79.
 
4
Latour also criticizes social constructivism, which is a central element of STS philosophy: He argues that constructivists cannot distinguish between good and bad constructions because all constructions are of equal value (Latour 2013, p. 159).
 
5
In the following I will use the terms relativism and perspectivism synonymously.
 
6
In epistemology, various terms are used to designate such socially and culturally shaped perspectives. Instead of perspectives, the terms conceptual schemes, paradigms, language games, discourses, narratives, ways of life, or traditions are also commonly used. Martin Kusch (2019) prefers the term “epistemic frameworks”.
 
7
On strong perspectivism, see also Boghossian 2006, p. 90.
 
8
One may object at this point that truth also depends on arbitrary conventions (e.g. what a “normal observer” is), but as I will show in Sect. 1.9, every language presupposes a fixed system of reference by which meanings are defined.
 
9
Important representatives of the “ontological turn” are Viveiros de Castro, Philippe Descola, Martin Holbraad, Morten Axel Pedersen, Paolo Heywood, Eduardo Koon and Amiria Henare.
 
10
Cosmopolitanism is the idea of a global citizenship that unites nations, according to which all people share common values and ideals and have equal rights.
 
11
The concept of a “regime of truth” was introduced by Michel Foucault (1980), who sees truth as a social construct that is produced, disseminated and anchored in people’s minds by means of political, economic and media power.
 
12
Berger and Luckmann state, “The sociology of knowledge has the task of analyzing the social construction of reality” (Berger and Luckmann 1991, p. 15).
 
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Metadata
Title
Truth Relativism, Science Skepticism and the Political Consequences
Author
Thomas Zoglauer
Copyright Year
2023
Book
Truth and Fake in the Post-Factual Digital Age

Print ISBN: 978-3-658-40405-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-658-40406-2

Copyright Year: 2023

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40406-2_1