Knowledge is more than the sum of its facts. Historians have shown how intuitions, beliefs, rituals, fictions, and other ways of knowing bolster the cultural authority of scientific thinking in every era. Despite the ubiquity and importance of these alternatives to fact, knowledge claims still tend to rest explicitly on forms of evidence cemented in scientific disciplines over a century ago. This holds for historians and scientists alike: despite recognizing diverse practices in knowledge production, the foundations of historical and scientific knowing remain stubbornly factual. In an age of “alternative facts,” a new definition of knowledge centered on non-factual processes seems both philosophically possible and politically urgent.
This panel explores intellectual authority today in light of the histories of various alternatives to fact within the human and social sciences. Joanna Radin excavates “off-label” uses of early SSK in the mass market fiction of Michael Crichton. Henry Cowles examines the contested place of anecdotes in the “new psychology” that took shape in the late nineteenth century. Myrna Perez Sheldon analyzes the role of hereditary “facts” embedded in eugenic sermons written and preached by American Protestants pastors in the early twentieth century. Benjamin Breen looks at the strange entanglements between occult communities and technologists in mid-twentieth century California. A synthetic comment by Cathy Gere will draw together shared themes from these four historical moments, suggesting how they might speak to current conversations—within the discipline and beyond.
