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The Constitution of Knowledge
Article

The Constitution of Knowledge


автоматическое преобразование текста в аудио
автоматическое преобразование текста в аудио

Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Background
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

All politicians occasionally bend the truth. Brookings Institution fellow Jonathan Rauch argues, however, that United States President Donald Trump has broken with established norms by spreading falsehoods regularly and with a strategic purpose: to undermine the very concept of objective truth. Trump’s behavior, Rauch claims, is symptomatic of a larger trend. In recent years, internet propagandists have chipped away at a long-held, informal social consensus on how to derive facts – a process he refers to as the “constitution of knowledge.” getAbstract recommends this article to those concerned with the rise of disinformation in America.

Take-Aways

  • The “constitution of knowledge” is an informal mechanism, modeled on the scientific method, by which Western societies form a social consensus on truth. 
  • While freedom of speech allows everybody to voice a hypothesis, the hypothesis only gains social acceptance after a wide network of experts and institutions have tested its validity and persuasiveness.
  • Digital disinformation propagandists who attack experts’ credibility are preventing society from forming a consensus on truth. 

About the Author

Jonathan Rauch is an author and senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. 


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