“Post-truth,” voted as the word of the year 2016 both in English and German, has become a popular concept, although the exact meaning of the diagnosis of our times as a “post-truth era” remains somewhat elusive.
The seminar will investigate the broader background behind this diagnosis, namely the relationship between truth and politics, or, more precisely, the relationship between untruth and politics. We will discuss a number of concepts which are used in political theory/political philosophy to analyze the existence, the genesis and the function of political untruth. Given its importance, the first half of the seminar will be concerned with the various concepts of “ideology”: from Marx and Mannheim to Adorno and Althusser, to name but a few. In the second half, we will scrutinize related concepts like propaganda, political lies or bullshit.
Preparatory Reading
Celikates, Robin (2017): Epistemische Ungerechtigkeit, Loopingeffekte und Ideologiekritik. Eine sozialphilosophische Perspektive. In: WestEnd 14 (2), 53–72.
D’Ancona, Matthew (2017): Post-Truth. The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back. London: Ebury Press.
Frankfurt, Harry G. (2006 [2005]): Bullshit. Übersetzt von Michael Bischoff. 1. Aufl. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Jaeggi, Rahel (2009): Was ist Ideologiekritik? In: Rahel Jaeggi und Tilo Wesche (Hrsg.), Was ist Kritik? Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 266–295.