Response to Steve Hoffman's "The Responsibilities and Obligations of STS in a Moment of Post-Truth Demagoguery"

Noortje Marres

doi:10.17351/ests2018.263

Response to Steve Hoffman's "The Responsibilities and Obligations of STS in a Moment of Post-Truth Demagoguery"

Noortje Marres University of Warwick

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2018.263

Keywords: demarcation, knowledge technology, knowledge democracy, digital society, public facts

Abstract

In this response to Steven Hoffman’s The Responsibilities and Obligations of STS in a Moment of Post-Truth Demagoguery," I insist on the importance of public knowledge, which requires that we distinguish between scientific and public facts. I differentiate between knowledge democracy and populism, as the former entails a refusal of hierarchical visions of the relation between science and politics. I discuss the problem of demarcation, and how the delineation between valid and invalid claims resurfaces as a practical and normative problem in today’s technological societies.

Author Biography

Noortje Marres, University of Warwick

Associate Professor and Research Director, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick

Published

24 Jul 2018

Issue

Vol. 4 (2018)

Section

Debates/Interactions

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