Tracing "Truth" in a Post-Truth Era: Why Should Education Worry?

• In Event: Critical Education and Philosophy in a Post-Truth World

Abstract

The Oxford Dictionaries chose ‘post-truth” as its 2016 word of the year, defining it as shorthand for “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” It appeals to style rather than substance, data and evidence. Rather than verifiable reality, there is an ongoing and seemingly unbridgeable battle to define it especially in relation to politics. Some argue French postmodernist thought in particular, which argued there was no such thing as truth and objectivity only power and interests, has inadvertently led to this. But postmodern notions of truth in terms of perception and reality relate more generally to the social and cultural realm rather than the physical sciences. Yet, ‘truth’ has deep cultural roots in the Western tradition. Truth is an obvious, intuitive, existential and everyday affair. We do not need it explained to us. We grow up in a culture where while taken for granted, it is never far from our thoughts and actions. It is contrasted with its opposite -- lies, falsehood, disinformation and deception and with contemporary discourses related to ‘alternative facts’, lying, dissembling, fake news, and so on that despite data and evidence, appeal to our non-rational selves. Truth, its cognate concepts and truth-telling practices are central to our institutions—to science, politics, law, and education—and part of the cultural infrastructure within which we exist and make sense of the world. It is one of a handful of concepts whose structure and function in part accounts for the fabric and spirit of our civilization. In its electronic form digital logic now determines digital reason and has become the basis for our digital culture. Truth as a concept and practice has changed its shape from the oral tradition in Ancient Greece to the basis for digital logic in the twenty-first century. While retaining its significance and value, it has developed both as a concept and cultural practice. The notion of empirical or contingent truth did not fall from the sky; a priori or necessary truth, truth established without recourse to experience of the world, underwent an evolution. The paper explores the importance of truth, different types of truth and truth-telling practices and its relevance within education.

Author

• Tina Besley, The University of Waikato