Place and Post-Truth

The emergence of post-truth is often construed as immoral in the political framework, echoing the long-standing moral philosophical debates on truth and veracity as universal values, and on the subjective assessment of harmful truths and ‘white lies’. A moral consideration of truth as an absolute norm has been seen as ignoring the fallibility of human reason, and suppressing the multiplicity of perspectives. Between the tyranny of truth as an absolute and the fraudulent ‘alternative reality’ generated by a general mistrust of facts, many seek a solution in a renewed commonality.

 We wish to question post-truth and its precursors and contemporaries: lies, propaganda, manipulation and disinformation. We would like in particular to discuss the violent dimension of post-truth, the violent assertion that it is possible to become blind and deaf to objectivity, verifiable facts and universal values in order to promote a subjective truth.