Post-Truth: Knowledge As A Power Game(1 Key Issues in Modern Sociology)

‘Post-truth’ was Oxford Dictionaries 2016 word of the year. While the term was coined by its disparagers in the light of the Brexit and US presidential campaigns, the roots of post-truth lie deep in the history of Western social and political theory. Post-Truth reaches back to Plato, ranging across theology and philosophy, to focus on the Machiavellian tradition in classical sociology, as exemplified by Vilfredo Pareto, who offered the original modern account of post-truth in terms of the ‘circulation of elites’. The defining feature of ‘post-truth’ is a strong distinction between appearance and reality which is never quite resolved and so the strongest appearance ends up passing for reality. The only question is whether more is gained by rapid changes in appearance or by stabilizing one such appearance. Post-Truth plays out what this means for both politics and science.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements; Introduction: Science and Politics in a Post-Truth Era: Pareto's Hidden Hand; Chapter One: Brexit: Political Expertise Confronts the Will of the People; Chapter Two: What Philosophy Does and Does Not Teach Us about the Post-Truth Condition; Chapter Three: Sociology and Science and Technology Studies as Post-Truth Sciences; Chapter Four: The Post-Truth about Academia: Undiscovered Public Knowledge; Appendix: Prolegomena To A Deep History of 'Information Overload'; Chapter Five: Science Customisation: A Project for the Post-Truth Condition; Chapter Six: The Performance of Politics and Science on the Playing Field of Time; Chapter Seven: Forecasting: The Future as the Post-Truth Playground; The Argument in A Nutshell; Glossary; References; Index. Acknowledgements; Introduction: Science and Politics in a Post-Truth Era: Pareto's Hidden Hand; Chapter One: Brexit: Political Expertise Confronts the Will of the People; Chapter Two: What Philosophy Does and Does Not Teach Us about the Post-Truth Condition; Chapter Three: Sociology and Science and Technology Studies as Post-Truth Sciences; Chapter Four: The Post-Truth about Academia: Undiscovered Public Knowledge; Appendix: Prolegomena To A Deep History of 'Information Overload'; Chapter Five: Science Customisation: A Project for the Post-Truth Condition; Chapter Six: The Performance of Politics and Science on the Playing Field of Time; Chapter Seven: Forecasting: The Future as the Post-Truth Playground; The Argument in A Nutshell; Glossary; References; Index.

About the Author :
Steve Fuller is the Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. Originally trained in history and philosophy of science, Fuller pioneered the field of 'social epistemology' in a quarterly journal that he founded in 1987 as well as in more than twenty books. His most recent books are Knowledge: The Philosophical Quest in History (2015) and The Academic Caesar (2016).

Review :
Studi culturali Philosophy of the Social Sciences Journal Postdigital Science and Education Blog of the APA - The American Philosophical Association BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed Post-Truth – Book Discussion Serious Science Australian Broadcasting Commission [ABC] - Steve Fuller on Post-Truth Article by Professor Fuller published in the Blog of the APA ‘Steve Fuller takes the concept of post-truth to a new level of analysis, explaining the history of “meta” thinking about truth, the institutional structuring of truth through “rules of the game”, and the forms of knowledge that go beyond and problematize this kind of truth. Fuller skewers contemporary thinkers who are in denial about the problematic character of institutional truth and wish to occlude or ignore the processes by which it is produced, and who invent philosophical rationalizations for this denial. This is a readable, bravura performance that develops themes from his earlier writings.’ —Stephen Turner, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida, USA ‘Alfred Jarry said, “Cliches are the armature of the Absolute.” Steve Fuller provokes us to think past clichés about truth that we default to in the face of scepticism about expertise. He provides an account of issues in play in “post-truth”, epistemic populist circumstances, and traces their lineage in an illuminating way.’ —Fred D’Agostino, Professor of Humanities, The University of Queensland, Australia ‘Anyone familiar with the work of Steve Fuller will expect Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game to be original, provocative, and, of course, funny. It is all these things.’ —Sharon Rider, Postdigital Science and Education, April 2019, Vol 1 (1): pp. 256–264.  ‘Fuller carries social constructionism to its bitter end in his theory of the “post-truth condition”—endemic to current life and to the entirety of Western Philosophy.’ —Sheldon Richmond, Book Review, 'Philosophy of the Social Sciences', 49 (1): pp. 69–84.  "The book offers analyses of how the post-truth condition manifests itself in a breadth of situations and settings. Overall, it presents a compelling argument that the world immersed in the post-truth condition is not on the brink of apocalypse. Fuller’s open-minded inquiry casts a glance beyond the point where most publications on post-truth halt. Where most resort to categorical disdain, he takes a step back to consider the big picture. In this way, his book presents a unique endeavor and a valuable contribution to post-truth scholarship. — Toman, Lucia: “A Different Perspective on Post-Truth: Lions, Foxes, Academia and Brexit [Review of: Fuller, Steve: Post-Truth. Knowledge as a Power Game. New York: Anthem Press, 2018.].“ In: KULT_online 62 (2020)."