#17: Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug
Instructed by Dr. Christopher Robichaud at Harvard University
The truth is stranger than fiction– and the truth is, any truths considered inconvenient to a subset of U.S. citizens can, and will, be declared “fake news!”. In this world, it’s hard to know alternative fact from actual fact.
To aide students in making the distinction, Harvard University professor Dr. Christopher Robichaud has developed a new Gen Ed offering: Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug.
#17: Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug
School: Harvard University
Course: Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug
Instructor: Dr. Christopher Robichaud
Course Description:
Is truth dead? Time Magazine posed this question in bold red print on its April 3, 2017 cover. It’s a surprising concern, given that information of every sort imaginable is merely a click away on our phones, access to educational resources is robust for both traditional students and online learners, and direct interaction with public figures is more unencumbered than ever before with the help of social networks. Yet we nevertheless find that “alternative” facts regularly compete on equal footing with actual facts, fake news beats out mainstream news, and expert knowledge is sidelined for gut hunches and whatever feels correct. Such is the so-called post-truth age. Can our democracy survive it? Contrary to what many of you may think, it’s not obvious that it can. Perhaps even more surprising, if it can survive, it may only be by way of the much-maligned practice of politics.
In this course, you’ll interrogate the post-truth age, primarily within the American context, by examining it through a philosophical lens that also engages with the behavioral and social sciences.
Ask the Instructor: Dr. Christopher Robichaud
Why did you elect to offer this course at Harvard this year?
Our current political moment, ever since 2016 but even a few years before that, has often been described as being post-truth. Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash and Humbug is a course that examines this political moment through a philosophical lens, and there’s really no better time to do that than during a presidential election year.
Is Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug offered within the department in which you usually teach?
Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash and Humbug is part of Harvard’s new Gen Ed course offerings. Home base for me is the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where I am a Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy. There’s been a push in recent years, which I wholly embrace, to make Gen Ed courses for undergraduates more relevant to their lives. There’s a tremendous interest in politics, and especially, how to think about this current political moment, and so I found myself having something to offer undergraduates, even coming from a school of politics and policy.
How many students take this course?
Ignorance, Lies. Hogwash, and Humbug has been a Gen Ed offering twice at Harvard College, in 2018 and 2020. Enrollment the first time was somewhere near 130, and this time it’s around 230.
What do you ultimately hope that your students take away from participating in Ignorance?
The style of philosophy I practice and teach invites participants to slow down a little bit in their thinking and approach difficult questions with curiosity, humility, and rigor. To me, these are invaluable habits of mind to adopt both in examining the post-truth age, and in surviving it, and so I hope students have an opportunity to cultivate these habits of mind throughout the semester.
If you could teach a course on any topic at all, what would it be?
I’m a comic book geek and so I’ve always wanted to teach a course on superheroes and philosophy, two of my great passions. Turns out I was blessed a few years ago to be able to work with the Harvard Extension School and the Smithsonian to put just that course together for online learners. It’s called Power And Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes.
NEXT: #16: Material Culture & the Iconic Consciousness
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