Post-Truth and the Controversy over Postmodernism. Or, was Trump Reading Foucault?

Type of content
Journal Article
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2022
Authors
Saul Newman
Abstract

Post-truth was the OED word of the year in 2016, defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping political debate or public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’. Now, six years on, the proliferation of lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ is still very much part of political life, driven by populist forces and intensified by the ‘culture wars’. This paper investigates the epistemic origins of this situation by looking at the recent controversy about ‘postmodernism’ and its alleged role in the relativization of truth. I seek, firstly, to defend postmodern theory against this claim, arguing that revealing the discursive conditions of the emergence of truth claims in no way implies its relativization. Secondly, I seek to construct an alternative and more radical and politically engaged notion of truth through Foucault’s later work on parrhesia – arguing that this ancient form of speaking truth to power can be an effective remedy against the post-truth onslaught and can lead to new forms of ethical and political subjectivation necessary for the renewal of democratic life.

Description
Citation
Keywords
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.