scholarly journals Hermeneutics in an Age of Alternative Facts, Fake News, and Climate Change Denial

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-117
Author(s):  
Patrick Howard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
Alternative Facts

A Review of Clingerman, F., Treanor, B., Drenthen, M., and Utsler, D. (Eds.) Interpreting Nature: The emerging field of environmental hermeneutics.

Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Pritchard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
Radical Form

Throughout history, scepticism and the urge to question accepted truths has been a powerful force for change and growth. A healthy amount of scepticism is widely encouraged, but when is such scepticism legitimate and when is it problematic? Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction explores both the advantages of scepticism and how it can have unhelpful social consequences in generating distrust. It considers the role of scepticism as the source of contemporary social and political movements such as climate change denial, post-truth politics, and fake news. It also examines the philosophical arguments for a radical form of scepticism, which maintains that knowledge is impossible.

Mill and the Limits of Freedom of Expression

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Johann Go ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
State Interference

The rise of fake news, climate change denial, and the anti-vaccination movement all pose important challenges to contemporary views about freedom of expression. This paper attempts to delineate the limits of freedom of expression, specifically with regard to truth, lies, and harm. My strategy is to offer a critical reading of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty to demonstrate its enduring relevance to contemporary issues in the freedom of expression. My critical reading of Mill provides guidance on when state interference is justified, the role of education, the nature of harm in the age of mass media and globalisation, and the relevance of truth and lies in the freedom of expression. Ultimately, I demonstrate that the Millian account I present can deal adequately with contemporary issues in the freedom of expression in line with the current social context, relevant empirical facts, and our considered judgements.

Garden-Variety Formalist

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-60
Author(s):  
Colin Lang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Bret Easton Ellis ◽  
Literary Achievement ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
Media Spectacle ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Complex Relationships

Recently, the effort to counter Fake News faced a counter attack: academic »postmodernism « and »social constructivism« it was said—because they say that facts are soaked in prior interpretations—are either purveyors of Fake News or set the cultural context in which it flourishes. They do so by undermining confidence in inquiry governed by simple facts. That is erroneous, argues William E. Connolly, because postmodernism never said that facts or objectivity are ghostly, subjective or »fake«. However, that what was objective at one time may become less so at a later date through the combination of a paradigm shift in theory, new powers of perception, new tests with refined instruments, and changes in natural processes such as species evolution. But the emergence of new theories and tests does not reduce objectivity to subjective opinion. Facts are real. Objectivity is important. But as you move up the scale of complexity with respect to facts and objectivity, it becomes clear that what was objective at one time may become subjective at another. Not because of Fake News or postmodernism. But because the complex relationships between theory, evidence and conduct periodically open up new thresholds. Colin Lang in turn rhetorically asks if »fake news« or »alternative facts« are a new carnival and Trump its dog and pony show? The idea of »fake news« and »alternative facts« as a carnival could not only help to see the constructedness of the media spectacle, but also provides a new perspective on Trump as an actor who is playing a particular role in this carnival, and that role is not one that any of us would describe as presidential. Many in the popular press have assumed it is just what it looks like, an infantilized narcissist, a parody of some Regan-era New York real estate tycoon straight out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel. The problem is that this description is all too obvious, and misses something fundamental about alternative facts, and the part that Trump is playing. A central assumption is, then, that the creation of alternative facts is one symptom of a more structural, paradigmatic shift in the persona of a president, one which has few correlates in the annals of political history. The closest analogy for his kind of performance is actually hinted at in the title of Trump’s greatest literary achievement: The Art of the Deal. Trump is playing the part of an artist, pilfering from the tactics of the avant-garde and putting them to very different ends.

Why scientific evidence is no longer enough in public debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Pilditch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Global Problems

Many of the global problems humanity is facing concern acting appropriately given the available evidence. However, issues including climate change denial (McGlade and Ekins, 2015; Steffen et al., 2015) and anti-vaccination movements (Hargreaves, Lewis, and Speers, 2003; Petrovic, Roberts, and Ramsay, 2001) appear to run contrary to overwhelming evidence. The investigation of these issues has pointed to two possible causes; either insufficient exposure to the evidence at hand, or ulterior / biased motives5. Here I show such explanations are unnecessary, and further, why current counterarguments focussed on scientific evidence may not only be ineffective, but may backfire. I highlight that denialist arguments focusing on credibility-based attacks can provoke rational scepticism of the issue at hand, requiring a shift in counterargument strategy – away from the evidence itself. I show the maximally effective counterargument strategy is to separately and directly address credibility-attacks, salvaging both the immediate issue, and future debate.

El archivo invertido

Tábula ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 25-53
Author(s):  
James Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Fake News ◽  
State Information ◽  
Open Government Data ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
Government Data ◽  
Sistemas De Informacion

Este artículo sostiene que el concepto de “umbral archivístico” del ius archivi en el que la recepción de documentos por un archivo sirve para autenticar esos documentos, se invierte en la era de los datos gubernamentales abiertos y de las tecnologías cívicas. Estas tecnologías crean una expectativa de transparencia que invierte la función del umbral. Sólo a través de la transmisión de datos desde los archivos al espacio público se puede determinar la autenticidad. En una época de “noticias falsas” y de los llamados “hechos alternativos”, esta dinámica es problemática y plantea interrogantes sobre la participación en los sistemas de información estatales. This paper argues that the ius archivi concept of the “archival threshold”, in which receipt of records by an authoritative archive serves to authenticate those records, is inverted in the era of open government data and civic technologies. These technologies of witnessing create an expectation of transparency that reverses the function of the threshold; it is only through the transmission of data out of archives and into public space that authenticity can be judged. In a time of ‘fake news’ and so called ‘alternative facts’, this dynamic is problematic and raises questions about participation in state information systems.

scholarly journals Climate Change Denial Books and Conservative Think Tanks

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riley E. Dunlap ◽  
Peter J. Jacques
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Climate Change Denial

scholarly journals Alan Betts: Green Energy Times, 2018

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Betts
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Policy ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Collective Decision ◽  
The Public ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Future

This is a collection of my 2018 articles in the Green Energy Times (http://www.greenenergytimes.org/ ).This series started in 2016. Many of these articles have been edited or updated from articles I wrote forthe Rutland Herald, sometimes with different titles and pictures.They blend science and opinion with a systems perspective, and encourage the reader to explorealternative and hopeful paths for their families and society. They are written so that a scientist willperceive them as accurate (although simplified); while the public can relate their tangible experience ofweather and climate to the much less tangible issues of climate change, energy policy and strategies forliving sustainably with the earth system.The politically motivated attacks on climate science by the current president have sharpened my politicalcommentary this year; since climate change denial may bring immense suffering to our children and lifeon Earth.I believe that earth scientists have a responsibility to communicate clearly and directly to the public1 –aswe all share responsibility for the future of the Earth. We must deepen our collective understanding, sowe can make a collective decision to build a resilient future.

scholarly journals Strategies of Climate Change Denial: The case of Thierry Baudet

MaRBLe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roelien Van der Wel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The State ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Anglo American

This paper discusses different strategies of climate change denial and focusses on the specific case of Dutch politician Thierry Baudet. Much of the literature concerning climate change denial focusses on Anglo-American cases, therefore more research non-English speaking countries is necessary. The theoretical framework describes the state of the art concerning climate change denialism and its links to occurring phenomena in Western societies and politics such as post-truth and populism. Afterwards, by conducting a deductive analysis of  Thierry Baudet’s climate denialism in the Netherlands, a more thorough understanding of the different strategies proposed by Stefan Rahmstorf  and Engels et al. is reached. Although all four categories are detected in Baudet’s denialism, consensus denial seems to be the most prevalent. The analysis of his usage of the notion of a climate apocalypse, combined with the analysis of his specific focus on consensus denial, broadens the understanding of how climate change denial can relate to populism. 

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