On post-truth and communication technologies in the era of late capitalism

Abstract

This essay explores the phenomenon described by journalists as ‘post-truth’ against the backdrop of Richard Rorty’s neopragmatic concept of truth. An additional frame of reference involves a reflection on the technologies developed by consumerist societies of late capitalism that are controlling the conscious and unconscious rhythms of bodies and souls. In Rorty’s philosophy, truth turns out to be a derivative of pragmatic efficiency, or more precisely, the reconciliation of human beliefs and desires. It is by far the best definition of ‘post-truth.’ Such an approach undoubtedly raises concerns and objections. It gives the impression that the world is falling apart into increasingly smaller fragments that remain only relatively coherent. These separate ‘social worlds’ or ‘interpretive communities’ seem to be reduced to increasingly less stable elements. At the same time they are forming certain ethoi that produce their own alethourges, i.e. sets of procedures by means of which we create what we consider to be true. This is facilitated by the development of the internet, and in particular social media, which has opened up far-reaching possibilities for the controlling and modelling of consciousness. The development of artificial intelligence takes us to the uncanny valley. Engels’s dialectic between hand and tool fits ever more closely into the broader framework of the lord–bondsman dialectic. Therefore, ‘post-truth’ turns out to be an unintended consequence of pragmatism.