Résumés
Abstract
This paper explores some of the perils to American democracy in the age of the Internet, social media, and the filtered bubbles that its citizens inhabit. I open my analysis by revisiting the myth of the Tower of Babel in order to reflect on the insights that can be gleaned for the present state of disinformation. Then I turn to an examination of the notions of polarization and structural stupidity, while tying them to the distinction that C. Thi Nguyen makes between epistemic bubbles and echo chambers. I then argue that the insights of the myth of the Tower of Babel can take us only so far and that an adequate understanding of the current state of affairs in the United States needs to consider the crisis in the authority of knowledge. I base my argument on some insights of philosophers Walter Lippmann and José Ortega y Gasset, who were both concerned about the role of private citizens and the public in the life of a democracy. I conclude this paper by discussing various positions that philosophers of education can take in the age of Babel, while advocating for the need to adopt a probing stance.
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Beatty, J. (1999). Good listening. Educational Theory, 49(3), 281–298.
- Blackburn, S. (2019). How can we teach objectivity in a post-truth era? New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2019/02/how-can-we-teach-objectivity-post-truth-era.
- Davies, W. (2016, August 24). The age of post-truth politics. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/opinion/campaign-stops/the-age-of-post-truth-politics.html.
- Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York, NY: The Free Press.
- Gibson, C. & Jacobson, T. (2018). Habits of mind in an uncertain information world. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 57(3), 183–192.
- Gordon, M. (2018). Lying in politics: Fake news, alternative facts, and the challenges for deliberative civics education. Educational Theory, 68(1), 49–64.
- Gordon, M. (2022). Education in a cultural war era: Thinking philosophically about the practice of cancelling. Routledge.
- Haidt, J. (2022, May). Why the last 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid. Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369.
- Hare, C., & Poole, K. T. (2014). The polarization of contemporary American politics. Polity, 46(3), 411–429.
- Jacobson, D. (2016). Freedom of speech under assault on campus. Policy Analysis of Cato Institute No. 796. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2835476.
- Jewish Publication Society. (2003). JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.
- Kahne, J., & Bowyer, B. (2017). Educating for democracy in a partisan age: Confronting the challenges of motivated reasoning and misinformation. American Educational Research Journal, 54(1), 3–34.
- Lippmann, W. (2022). The phantom public. Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books. (Original work published 1925)
- Nguyen, C. T. (2020). Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles. Episteme, 17(2), 141–161.
- Nordell, J. (2021). The end of bias: A beginning; The science and practice of overcoming unconscious bias. New York: Metropolitan Books.
- Ortega y Gasset, J. (1932). The revolt of the masses. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
- Zinn, H. (1995). A people’s history of the United States: 1492–present. New York: Harper Perennial.