SOCIAL RELEVANCE OF THE HUMANITIES (REV-HUM)

FELLOWS ROUND TABLE

hosted by the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia
7 June, 2024

The Social Relevance of the Humanities (RevHum) fellowship program, proposed jointly by the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia and the New Europe College Bucharest and developed with the financial support of the Porticus Foundation under its global initiative ‘Talents for Good’, aims to underscore the cognitive functions of the humanities and their potential as critical disciplines by opening them up to issues relevant in/for the contemporary world – issues that are “practical”, but also epistemological, ethical, philosophical, etc.

The program is guided by the belief that there is a considerable added value for humanities scholars across the academe, whatever their field, to be encouraged to rethink their topics in terms of their broader contemporary relevance (be it political, ethical, religious or academic), yet necessarily of significance for the world we are living in.

CAS Sofia and NEC Bucharest cordially invites you to join the annual table discussion under the REV-HUM Fellowship programme to be convened in Sofia, Bulgaria on: 07 June (Friday), 2024.

How Critical Thinking and Academic Standards navigate in the World of Post-Truth?

In times when documented facts and observable realities are viewed as irrelevant, or less important than personal beliefs and opinions, and emotional appeals are predominantly used to influence public opinion and direct decision making, we should also discuss how science and critical thinking in general fit into and/or contradicts to this re-enchanted world of Post-Truth. Usually scientific knowledge and methods (also contemporary art) are summoned to expose post-truth but we also need to consider the specific ways in which post-modern humanities contributed to the proliferation of “inner” truths and to the emancipation of intellectual idiosyncrasies.

By gathering a group of current CAS and NEC Fellows we would like to provoke an open and informal debate on the following (but not limited to) questions:

• Are we living in a post-truth times? What role does the academy have in giving way to this moment of “alternative facts,” and “truth isn’t truth”?
• Is the Enlightenment project of modern (objective ??) science completed, compromised or reverted?
• Can science and critical knowledge be deployed to other social fields (politics, media, education, social reproduction, etc.) without being compromised?
• Should scientists preserve a degree of independence and detachment from the “outer world”?
• Why the whims of intellectual creativity and fantasy are merited in post-modern science and contemporary art, while they are to be sanctioned in media and politics?
• Who is the best producer of Post-Truths – the AI or the Humans?
• If we are deprived of truth, do we still have values?
• How do you navigate all these big questions in your own focused research?
• …