Next Talk: A Royal Institute of Philosophy Public Lecture: 'Fake News! Language, Power and the Politics of Knowledge' by Dr Yasemin J. Erden, 13 February 2018

A Royal Institute of Philosophy Public Lecture                                        Abstract:                                                                                                                                          From Rumsfeld's 'Known unknowns' to Blair's Dossier, through to Trump's protestations of fake news, knowledge plays an important role in political narrative. Who knows what, and what can be known are key issues in those decisions which affect all our lives. Even when the claim to knowledge has been tenuous at best, there is an expectation of certainty -- we expect experts and politicians to know their stuff. In this talk we'll explore the space between knowledge as certainty, and knowledge as cultural in poststructural terms. We'll begin by examining the impact caused by philosophical doubt, uncertainty, and deconstruction, and end by asking whether philosophers have a role in reassuring others. For instance, by showing that there are some things we can know, and that these are the known knowns on which we can rely.