ABSTRACT
By creating the conditions for an effective public that is co-extensive with the work of research and education involved in establishing truth, facts, objectivity, reliability, validity, subjectivity, representation, generalisation and universalisation. The challenge for researchers and educationists is how to get it back where it belongs, with the public. The challenge for education and for research begins with unpicking these ideas lying around to see how their ‘truths’ have been constructed and for what purposes they have been used. The more earthy term, for Trumpiness or truthful hyperbole, is bullshit. H. G. Frankfurt distinguishes truth, lying and bullshit. The lier cannot lie without assuming there is a truth. The challenge for research and education begins with what counts as common sense and how it is constructed and used as a basis for decision-making and action – whether to reduce or to increase freedoms.
