Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times
Clearing philosophical ground for diagnoses of the contemporary ‘post-truth’-problematic, this article discusses the systematic and ineliminable ambivalence of claims to truth in public discourse and collective life generally, where truth cannot ultimately be disentangled from untruth. Truth becomes...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nordic Wittgenstein Society
2019-07-01
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| Series: | Nordic Wittgenstein Review |
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| Online Access: | https://www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com/article/view/3504 |
| _version_ | 1818474559669534720 |
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| author | Joel Backström |
| author_facet | Joel Backström |
| author_sort | Joel Backström |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Clearing philosophical ground for diagnoses of the contemporary ‘post-truth’-problematic, this article discusses the systematic and ineliminable ambivalence of claims to truth in public discourse and collective life generally, where truth cannot ultimately be disentangled from untruth. Truth becomes a problem in the relevant sense only where matters are morally-existentially charged, so that acknowledging truth threatens, e.g., loss of self-respect, and self-deception becomes tempting, individually and collectively. To the extent that our life is marked by injustice and destructiveness, it is necessarily also marked by systematic falsification, a conspiracy to deny the truth about it, about us. Collective life exhibits pervasive hostility to interpersonal (moral) understanding, which is repressed through collectively established fake ‘understandings’ and regimes of respectability. The fact/opinion and fact/value distinctions function as defences against understanding, while meaning and truth are seen as things to be determined rather than understood, and the concept of representatability, how things can be made to appear, becomes central. However, standard philosophical views on truth, meaning and morality render the problematic sketched here invisible, because they effectively move – as Wittgenstein arguably realised – wholly within the collective perspective that needs to be problematised.
Keywords: moral understanding, self-deception, collective life, representation, conspiracy theories, political corrrectness |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T04:38:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-34ce936b17c748859eb7bf4b70b8dc31 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2194-6825 2242-248X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T04:38:53Z |
| publishDate | 2019-07-01 |
| publisher | Nordic Wittgenstein Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordic Wittgenstein Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-34ce936b17c748859eb7bf4b70b8dc312022-12-22T02:11:45ZengNordic Wittgenstein SocietyNordic Wittgenstein Review2194-68252242-248X2019-07-01810.15845/nwr.v8i0.3504Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth TimesJoel Backström0University of Helsinki, PhilosophyClearing philosophical ground for diagnoses of the contemporary ‘post-truth’-problematic, this article discusses the systematic and ineliminable ambivalence of claims to truth in public discourse and collective life generally, where truth cannot ultimately be disentangled from untruth. Truth becomes a problem in the relevant sense only where matters are morally-existentially charged, so that acknowledging truth threatens, e.g., loss of self-respect, and self-deception becomes tempting, individually and collectively. To the extent that our life is marked by injustice and destructiveness, it is necessarily also marked by systematic falsification, a conspiracy to deny the truth about it, about us. Collective life exhibits pervasive hostility to interpersonal (moral) understanding, which is repressed through collectively established fake ‘understandings’ and regimes of respectability. The fact/opinion and fact/value distinctions function as defences against understanding, while meaning and truth are seen as things to be determined rather than understood, and the concept of representatability, how things can be made to appear, becomes central. However, standard philosophical views on truth, meaning and morality render the problematic sketched here invisible, because they effectively move – as Wittgenstein arguably realised – wholly within the collective perspective that needs to be problematised. Keywords: moral understanding, self-deception, collective life, representation, conspiracy theories, political corrrectnesshttps://www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com/article/view/3504post-truthcollectivityself-deceptiontruthethicsrespectability |
| spellingShingle | Joel Backström Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times Nordic Wittgenstein Review post-truth collectivity self-deception truth ethics respectability |
| title | Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times |
| title_full | Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times |
| title_fullStr | Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times |
| title_short | Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times |
| title_sort | pre truth life in post truth times |
| topic | post-truth collectivity self-deception truth ethics respectability |
| url | https://www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com/article/view/3504 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT joelbackstrom pretruthlifeinposttruthtimes |