Few questions today are more salient or more vital than the ones we’re asking about truth. Who determines the truth? How do we know when it’s true? Does it even matter? Can my truth be different from your truth? And what happens if it is? These issues have arisen alongside a parallel question about lies and falsehood. Google Trends shows that the

Truth was fake; fake was true. And that’s when the problem suddenly snapped into focus. Throughout recent centuries anyone growing up in a western democracy had believed that it was necessary to have facts. Without facts, societies could be extremely dark places. Facts were essential to informed debates, to progress, to coherence, to justice.

In a world where