Friday 18 March 2016

And the truthiness shall make you free

In his 2012 book, "In Praise of Reason," [Michael P.] Lynch identified three sources of skepticism about reason: the suspicion that all reasoning is rationalization, the idea that science is just another faith, and the notion that objectivity is an illusion. These ideas have a specific intellectual history, and none of them are on the wane. Their consequences, he believes, are dire: "Without a common background of standards against which we measure what counts as a reliable source of information, or a reliable method of inquiry, and what doesn't, we won't be able to agree on the facts, let alone values. Indeed, this is precisely the situation we seem to be headed toward in the United States." Hence, truthiness.
In short, the usual bastards will carry on getting away with it, so long as we assent to the fact-free *realities* they create.

Depressing.

Via.

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