This is a course that focuses on the fake news epidemic in a way that non-philosophy majors can understand and appreciate. It could function as an introduction to philosophy course that uses fake news as a touchstone to address a number of philosophical issues (knowledge, free will, political philosophy, etc.). Given the interdisciplinary nature of the course, it could function as credit for programs in English, Political Science, or Psychology.
The course has a few goals:
- Help students to understand the nature, extent, and various causes for today’s epistemic crisis. This goal corresponds to module 1 of the syllabus. The material here is interdisciplinary and includes concepts and findings from media studies, philosophy, and economics. Students are surprised and interested to learn how our information-scape has changed over the last fifty years and how false information can be created and spread in ways that were previously impossible.
- Help students to understand why humans fall for, spread, and often prefer fake news. This goal corresponds to module 2 of the syllabus. The material here is also interdisciplinary and includes concepts and findings from psychology, political science, and economics. Students are asked to engage in a number of interactive exercises that really make them aware of their intellectual blind spots and how they can be manipulated by the media.
- Help students to become better believers. This goal corresponds to module 3 of the syllabus. The material here is largely applied, social, and virtue epistemology. Students first master basic epistemic concepts (e.g. the difference between belief and knowledge) and then apply these concepts to the media ecosystem. Assignments ask them to focus on their own belief-forming practices and to critique them when they fall short of epistemic norms.
For resources, the course is centered around two contemporary books: Beyond Fake News (McBrayer) and The Death of Expertise (Nichols). It also relies on articles, videos, and online interactive activities. In my experience, non-philosophy majors struggle mightily with historical texts and contemporary journal articles. The former are abstruse. The latter are written for other professionals (not students). For that reason, I lean heavily on contemporary secondary sources and supplement with online activities and contemporary journal articles that have been edited.
The material works together to make the point that fake news is not an isolated, partisan, or cultural issue. It’s inherent to the human condition (what Descartes describes as the inside-outside problem) and exacerbated by contemporary technology. Humans are imperfect believers beset by many goals that are at odds with believing truly. Our intellectual imperfections and mixed motives give us reason to be epistemically humble. And anytime the truth is important—whether in our own lives or in broader contexts like democracy—we owe it to ourselves to take intentional steps to limit the scope and impact of misinformation.
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Justin McBrayer
Dr. Justin McBrayer is Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Philosophy at Fort Lewis College, the public liberal arts college for the state of Colorado. His latest book, Beyond Fake News: Finding the Truth in a World of Misinformation, uses practical wisdom from academic philosophy to empower readers to identify media sources worthy of their trust, as well as those that are not. He publishes widely in journals such as International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Religious Studies, and Philosophical Studies, and has presented at conferences and programs including the Central European University Summer Program on Moral Intuitionism, Epistemological and Methodological Aspects, the American Philosophical Association national and regional meetings, and is an ad-hoc reviewer for journals including American Philosophical Quarterly, Episteme, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, and Journal of Analytic Theology.
