Review of Steve Fuller (2018). Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game

Abstract

Steve Fuller pleads the case for democratizing knowledge by, among other things, dismantling the expertise “protection racket” run by universities and professional bodies (what he calls academic “rentseeking”). He argues that “facts” have “always existed in the state of scare quotes, not only in politics but also in science,” contending that this insight does not carry with it a lack of respect for knowledge and expertise, but simply the recognition that the plausibility of a claim can only be assessed within the rules of hypothesis-testing set within the context of the scientific institutions in which expertise is formed and exercised. Fuller describes the activities of academic disciplines, professional bodies, and accreditation agencies as different kinds of gatekeeping and boundary work, all of which exists for the purposes of keeping people out rather than letting them in. If universities genuinely want to produce and disseminate knowledge as a public good, then their main task is not to prime a select few to be admitted into their ranks, but to aid in the redistribution of epistemic wealth and social capital. The aim of the perpetual revolution for which the university classroom is a fitting scene, he suggests, would be the achievement of a common sense of humanity. But insurgencies begin with dissatisfaction. If the academy is serious about promoting the public good, then it should be able to make a convincing case about what academic knowledge can do for those who are sceptical. According to Fuller, the answer is “modal power,” enhanced control over what is conceivable as true or false, possible, or impossible. This increased capacity to change rule rules of the game benefits all insofar as it can be further intensified when it is more widely available and disributed. While there are risks involved in the phenomenon of "ProtScience" that he envisions, there are also enormous gains to be made.