Politics, Deception, and Being Self-Deceived

A review of Anna Elisabeth Galeotti's "Political Self-Deception

The Problem of Fake News

Looking at the recent spate of claims about “fake news” which appear to be a new feature of political discourse, I argue that fake news presents an interesting problem in epistemology. Te phenomena of fake news trades upon tolerating a certain indiference towards truth, which is sometimes expressed insincerely by political actors. Tis indiference and insincerity, I argue, has been allowed to fourish due to the way in which we have set the terms of the “public” epistemology that maintains what is considered “rational” public discourse. I argue one potential salve to the problem of fake news is to challenge this public epistemology by injecting a certain ethical consideration back into the discourse

What is fake news?

Talk of fake news is rife in contemporary politics, but what is fake news, and how, if anything, does it differ from news which is fake? I argue that in order to make sense of the phenomenon of fake news, it is necessary to first define it and then show what does and does not fall under the rubric of ‘fake news’. I then go on to argue that fake news is not a new problem. Rather, if there is problem with fake news it is its centrality in contemporary public debate

Between Forteana and Skepticism

A review of Bernard Will's "Believing Weird Things"

Envisioning an Ecojustice Adult Education

This paper outlines an ecojustice adult education and distinguishes it from adult environmental education. The ecological crisis is described and a call is made for adult educators to take the initiative to teach and learn about the ecological crisis. Adult education is perfectly poised to confront these issues yet little effort has been made in the field. Adult educators might envision ecojustice education within a larger social justice effort

The Iniquity of the Conspiracy Inquirers

A reply to “Why ‘Healthy Conspiracy Theories’ Are (Oxy)morons” by Pascal Wagner-Egger, Gérald Bronner, Sylvain Delouvée, Sebastian Dieguez and Nicolas Gauvrit

Critical Literacies and Feminist Ethics: Mapping a Pedagogical Reform in the Preparation of Educators

Those of us in university programs of education face the daunting task of preparing new and practicing teachers and school leaders with the necessary knowledge, competencies and attitudes to teach with success in the face of ever increasingly complex schooling environments

Suspicious Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists have been accused of a great many sins, but are the conspiracy theories conspiracy theorists believe epistemically problematic? Well, according to some recent work (such as Cassam Quassim, Keith Harris, and M. Guilia Napolitano), yes, they are. Yet a number of other philosophers (myself included) like Brian L. Keeley, Charles Pigden, Kurtis Hagen, Lee Basham, and the like have argued 'No!' I will argue that there are features of certain conspiracy theories which license suspicion of such theories. I will also argue that these features only license a limited suspicion of these conspiracy theories, and thus we need to be careful about generalising from such suspicions to a view of the warrant of conspiracy theories more generally. To understand why, we need to get to the bottom of what exactly makes us suspicious of certain conspiracy theories, and how being suspicious of a conspiracy theory does not always tell us anything about how likely the theory in question is to be false