Abstract

In his seminal book Against Method Paul Feyerabend demanded that “science should be taught as one view among many and not as the one and only road to truth and reality”. Given the recent backlash against scientific authority, which includes persisting denial of climate science, vaccine scepticism and the wider debate about the dawning of a postfactual era, it seems that Feyerabend had his will. However, scientific authority was never unchallenged and in particular contemporary discussions about an alleged coming of post-factual times create the chimera of an enlightened era in which reason and facts dominated. In my paper I will reengage with the history of facts (Poovey) and address some of the problems that occur when scientific and non-scientific facts clash in the public realm.