‘Do your own research!’ Misinformation, ignorance, and social media

Abstract

Writing in 2011, Philip Kitcher worried in ‘Public knowledge and its enemies’ that flaws in the dissemination of public knowledge would lead from a state of widespread ignorance to active resistance against expertise and more. Today, we seem to be living in the world Kitcher predicted, where a wide range of facts ranging from the results of democratic processes to public health information are deemed ‘fake’ by a significant part of the public. By engaging with Kitcher’s piece, this article discusses Kitcher’s states of ignorance, their implications, and how we may start addressing them.