New Books Network Joel Best, "Just the Facts: Untangling Contradictory Claims" (U California Press, 2025)
Sep 20, 2025
Sociologist Joel Best, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Delaware and author of "Just the Facts", delves into the nature of facts and their social construction. He explains that facts are shaped by collective beliefs and social norms. Best discusses how institutions like science and journalism create and modify facts, while also addressing the limitations of fact-checking in the digital age. He emphasizes the importance of understanding how identity influences the rejection of facts and advocates for evidence-based discussions to bridge divides.
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Facts Are Social Agreements
- Facts are social agreements built from shared language and conventions.
- What we call a fact depends on collective sense-making, not a pre-existing nugget in nature.
Timekeeping As A Convention
- Joel Best uses the calendar and clock to show how even timekeeping is a human convention.
- He notes nothing in nature mandates that today is September 17th, so these facts rest on agreement.
Institutions Produce Different Kinds Of Facts
- Different institutions produce facts using distinct methods and standards.
- Science, government, law, and journalism each create facts as best-effort outputs rather than absolute truth.
