Rebuilding Public Reason in an AI-Mediated Age
Hietanen, Mika LU
(2026)
Rhetorical Citizenship and Democratic Education in the Baltic Sea Region
p.5-5
- Abstract
- Democratic argument is not failing for lack of logic. It is failing because the shared ground beneath logic – the premises citizens once held in common – has fractured under information environments engineered for engagement rather than truth. When the same evidence is anchored by incompatible starting points, argument cannot cross; communities harden into fortresses built not from facts, but from what facts are for. Argument literacy remains essential, but no single literacy can outrun a machinery that manufactures plausibility at scale. What democratic citizenship now requires is a meta-literacy: the capacity to surface the premises beneath our claims, to audit the systems that shape what feels true, and to move between competing... (More)
- Democratic argument is not failing for lack of logic. It is failing because the shared ground beneath logic – the premises citizens once held in common – has fractured under information environments engineered for engagement rather than truth. When the same evidence is anchored by incompatible starting points, argument cannot cross; communities harden into fortresses built not from facts, but from what facts are for. Argument literacy remains essential, but no single literacy can outrun a machinery that manufactures plausibility at scale. What democratic citizenship now requires is a meta-literacy: the capacity to surface the premises beneath our claims, to audit the systems that shape what feels true, and to move between competing worldviews without losing our own bearings. This is the work of rhetorical citizenship in an AI-mediated age. Democratic judgement is more crucial than ever, and it is teachable. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/85fad930-db31-41c9-95ea-d39e6ce74225
- author
- Hietanen, Mika
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-05-06
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Rhetoric, Democracy, AI, Public Reason
- pages
- 1 pages
- conference name
- Rhetorical Citizenship and Democratic Education in the Baltic Sea Region
- conference location
- Stockholm, Sweden
- conference dates
- 2026-05-06 - 2026-05-08
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 85fad930-db31-41c9-95ea-d39e6ce74225
- date added to LUP
- 2026-05-06 19:29:09
- date last changed
- 2026-06-02 08:37:26
@misc{85fad930-db31-41c9-95ea-d39e6ce74225,
abstract = {{Democratic argument is not failing for lack of logic. It is failing because the shared ground beneath logic – the premises citizens once held in common – has fractured under information environments engineered for engagement rather than truth. When the same evidence is anchored by incompatible starting points, argument cannot cross; communities harden into fortresses built not from facts, but from what facts are for. Argument literacy remains essential, but no single literacy can outrun a machinery that manufactures plausibility at scale. What democratic citizenship now requires is a meta-literacy: the capacity to surface the premises beneath our claims, to audit the systems that shape what feels true, and to move between competing worldviews without losing our own bearings. This is the work of rhetorical citizenship in an AI-mediated age. Democratic judgement is more crucial than ever, and it is teachable.}},
author = {{Hietanen, Mika}},
keywords = {{Rhetoric; Democracy; AI; Public Reason}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
pages = {{5--5}},
title = {{Rebuilding Public Reason in an AI-Mediated Age}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/250582392/Rhetorical_Citizenship_and_Democratic_Education_in_the_Baltic_Sea_Region_-_Book_of_Abstracts_11_.pdf}},
year = {{2026}},
}