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

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.