Do you remember the CNN apple and banana ad? I got there first, but my prescient article languished in the review process….
Can university scholarship be reframed in a way that adequately addresses the so-called “post-truth era”?
The 2016 presidential election and its aftermath have provided a continuing series of shocks to higher education. Perhaps the most devastating aspect of recent events is the direct assault on objective truth—not subjective truth, but objective truth.
The Postmodern academy is accustomed to debates based on subjective truths, including the inherent clashes between the politically conservative and the politically progressive worldviews, or the idea that one person’s freedom fighter might be another person’s traitor. But that level of debate is not the issue; rather, the issue is a continuing series of bald-faced lies with no connection to physical reality. It is as if a man is holding up an apple and proclaiming to the world, “My hand is clearly empty.” If a person is unwilling to accept objective truth, what is the point of discourse?
Given the potential of “alternative facts” and “fake news” to disrupt the foundations of teaching and learning, institutions of higher education should consider a more fundamental reaction to this threat than merely hoping that freshman English teachers can somehow add truth-seeking to their already impossibly long list of course content. One potential solution, recognizing a “Scholarship of Reporting,” might seem radical at first, but this proposal has roots in the education establishment, specifically the work of Ernest L. Boyer.
Go to my publications page for the full article.