This book examines and critiques Steve Fuller’s social epistemology on his study of four ways to understand the nature of post-truth: way one’s understanding is an epistemic crisis in which emotion has taken over and facts are irrelevant; way two’s understanding is a legitimation crisis of cognitive authority of science on the legitimation and delegitimation of knowledge claims; way three’s understanding is the Internet and social media have led to the democratization of knowledge; way four’s understanding is the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the changing boundaries of the knower. Though Fuller is known for his early social epistemology on how knowledge should be organized, and for his later social epistemology on a post-human future and the impact of AI on the changing boundaries of the knower, his position on the nature of post-truth brings together his early and later social epistemology into a coherent project. This book situates and carefully addresses the critics of Fuller’s work in the context of ongoing crises of authority in science and technology studies, expertise, the university, democracy, and the mass media.
