How Do You Know? The Epistemological Foundations of 21st Century Literacy

This book defines the concept and practices of literacy through a discussion of knowledge, information media, culture, subjectivity, science, communication, and politics. Examining the ways in which the spread of literacy and education have caused culture wars in pluralist societies since the 16th century, the author reviews an interdisciplinary array of scholarly literature to contend that science, and more broadly evidence-based inductive arguments, offer the only reliable source information, and the only peaceful solution to cultural conflict in the 21st century. With a focus on the multifaceted practice of literacy-as-communication as embedded within larger social and political processes, this book offers a comprehensive study of literacy through five core topics: knowledge, psychology, culture, science, and arguing over truth in pluralist democracies. The central thesis of the book argues that we require a new literacy that incorporates reading and writing with advanced cognitive and epistemological skills. Today’s citizens need to be able to understand the basic cognitive and cultural processes through which knowledge is created, and they need to know how to evaluate knowledge, peacefully debate knowledge, and productively use knowledge, for both personal decisions and public policy. How Do You Know? The Epistemological Foundations of 21st Century Literacy is an interdisciplinary study that will appeal to scholars across the sciences and humanities, especially those concerned with pedagogy and the science of learning.

Preface: 'Clarifying the Mysteries of Intellectual Culture', by Gerald Graff Introduction: The Knowledge Gap 1. An Institutional History of Literacy Education Part I: A History of Education, Democracy, and Culture War 2. The Authority of Tradition: Schooling, Books, and the Development of Literacy 3. Culture Wars: Literacy, Schooling, and the Development of Democracy 4. Discontent with Democracy: Culture Wars in U. S. Part II: Subjectivity, Culture, and Bounded Rationality 5. Oral Culture and the Development of Literacy 6. The Concept of Culture 7. The Subjective Truth of Fiction 8. Bounded Rationality: The Problems of Subjective Knowledge 9. Culture, Common Sense, and the News Media 10. Is This Story True? Bias in the News Media Part III: Philosophy, Science and the Development of Objectivity 11. Philosophy and the Development of Knowledge 12. Science and the Development of Objectivity 13. Provisional Truth: The Limitations of Science 14. Practical Reasoning: Solving the Problems of Everyday Life Part IV: The Limitations of Argument: Pluralism, Values, and Contested Communication 15. Culture Is a Debate 16. Understanding Cultural Values 17. Open Arguments and the Warrant Conclusion: The Virtues of Toleration and Democratic Deliberation Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

J.M. Beach is a lecturer with the University Writing Program at the University of Texas, San Antonio, USA. He has advanced degrees in the fields of English, History, Philosophy, and Education, and has taught students in the United States, South Korea, and China. He is the Director of 21st Century Literacy; a non-profit organization focused on literacy education, and is also a poet. His research interests focus on the philosophy of knowledge, the science of culture and society, the history and philosophy of education, and literature. Some of Beach’s previous books include What Is Education? On the Social Ecology of Teaching, Learning, and Schooling (2014), Gateway to Opportunity? A History of the Community College in the United States (2011), Children Dying Inside: Education in South Korea (2011), and Studies in Poetry: The Visionary (2004). Visit the author’s website at www.jmbeach.com.