Will post-truth politics put an end to the Enlightenment?
Journalists and politicians have introduced the expressions ‘post-truth world’ and ‘post-truth politics’. Some post-modernists have welcomed this new era. It will, they enthusiastically proclaim, put an end to the Enlightenment Project. This is correct. For the Enlightenment was committed to the pursuit of truth in the face of religious dogma and political bigotry. It advocated empirical science and its methods as opposed to religious judgments based on the Bible or on the authority of the church. It demanded reasons and rational justifications for social institutions inimical to human felicity. And it fought for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the face of religious and political censorship.
The misleading and misguided expressions ‘post-truth world’ and ‘post-truth politics’ arose out of the 2016 debates over the British referendum on membership of the European Union and the US presidential election. In both, blatant lies were advanced by politicians and journalists. Lies, also known as ‘alternative facts’, became legitimate political currency. Many a politician canvassing for votes was not the least concerned with arguing from established facts and well-supported truths to sound conclusions. All that mattered was obtaining the votes to enable them to attain office or to achieve their objectives –– no matter how great the lies and how extensive the distortion of the facts.
Join the conversation