Abstract
Drawing attention to today’s epistemic crisis, this article seeks to reflect on the role of adult education in addressing this crisis and thereby fostering our democracies. We argue for the need of developing a new shared epistemic basis, a post-postmodern dialogic epistemology. This article presents three core components for this: (1) universalism and particularism, (2) embracing epistemic humility, and (3) seeking for dialogue and the public use of reason. Starting with recognizing the value of postmodern critiques on the Enlightenment ideas of rational thinking and its practices of rigid categorizations, we update key concepts of Enlightenment thinking, such as the power of judgment, human epistemic fallibility, and public reasoning. The modern value of the Enlightenment lies for us predominantly in the democratic educational project that it started. In this light, we see adult education as a (public) space dedicated to developing epistemic responsibility.
Highlights
The world is experiencing a crisis of epistemology
We see an insistence on determinant judgement, where people in their echo chambers subsume all phenomena under their particular framework for understanding the world, without engaging in reflective judgment based on a recognition of differences, including arguments from those in other echo chambers
Referring to the ideals and principles rooted in the Enlightenment and those developed by scholars empathetic with the Enlightenment (Popper, Rawls, Arendt) does not mean we are blind to the critiques against them
Summary
The world is experiencing a crisis of epistemology. In a benign way, evidence for this predicament can be seen in the growth of conspiracy theory movements such as the Flat Earth Society, which (as its name implies) adamantly proclaims that the Earth is flat despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary. In the case of global warming, a choice to either believe or not believe in human-induced global climate change based on one’s political or religious identity— or because one believes in science—precludes deeper discussions about points of evidence for either claim, scientific bias, academic pressure and fashion, and industrial/corporate hegemony One aspect of this crisis is the extent to which individuals are unwilling to delve deeply into the evidentiary claims of both sides of a controversial issue; another aspect has to do with more fundamental issues of living in a pluralistic society, dealing effectively with difference, and participating in social practices that contribute to an effective democracy. Using Adorno’s term, it requires “education for maturity/[autonomy]” (1970/2013), which necessitates lifelong learning
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