The Constitution of Knowledge

By Jonathan Rauch,

Book cover of The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth

Book description

Arming Americans to defend the truth from today's war on facts.

Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these recent additions to our daily vocabulary appear to have little in common. But together, they are driving an epistemic crisis: a multi-front challenge to America's ability to…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep the lights on. Or join the rebellion as a member.

Why read it?

2 authors picked The Constitution of Knowledge as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

At a time when new technology has delivered us to a world of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, we have lost our shared understanding of just what facts and truth are.

Jonathan Rauch helps us recall the importance of facts and truth to the liberal democratic process. He challenges us to reinstate knowledge and truth. 

From Tom's list on today’s roadmap to tomorrow.

If humans are the rational animal, why does the world seem to be losing its mind? Why the fake news, the conspiracy theories, the post-truth rhetoric?

Rauch explains that truth is a precious commodity, which none of us is smart enough to discover on our own.We depend on institutions and norms – like science, with empirical testing, and journalism, with editing and fact-checking, and democracy, with checks and balances, and academia, with peer review and freedom of inquiry – to make us collectively smarter than any of us is individually.

This infrastructure of truth is constantly being corroded –…

From Steven's list on rationality and why it matters.

Want books like The Constitution of Knowledge?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 74 books like The Constitution of Knowledge.

Browse books like The Constitution of Knowledge

Book cover of A Treatise of Human Nature
Book cover of Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making
Book cover of Rationality for Mortals: How People Cope with Uncertainty

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,118

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in fake news, rationality, and censorship?

Fake News 16 books
Rationality 16 books
Censorship 24 books