Steve Fuller: Can Universities Survive the Post-Truth Era?

Lecture on "Can Universities Survive the Post-Truth Era?" in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Presented by Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom.

Chaired by: Lloyd Hill, Senior Lecturer of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Abstract:
There is a tendency to see ‘post-truth’ disparagingly as the result of populist anti-intellectualism. Some would go further and dismiss ‘post-truth’ as simply a temporary turn in fortunes for the academics and other elites who have been shown wanting as a result of the Brexit vote and Trump’s election. I believe that both assessments of the post-truth condition are wrong. Drawing on my latest book, Post Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game, I shall argue that regardless of what happens to Brexit or Trump, the post-truth condition is here to stay – and, in a certain sense, has always been with us. In particular, we should see our epistemic predicament as part of the growth pains of the democratisation of knowledge, an inevitable consequence of which is the downgrading of expert judgement. I shall discuss what this means in terms of how universities should re-position themselves.