Between li(n)es : a philosophical study on the transformation of the meaning of lie in post-truth condition
Through Western philosophical history, the concept of truth has been transformed from Plato, Nietzsche and Hannah Arendt. Truth and lies have been regarded as a clear opposite pair, where lies are defined as false statements for the purpose of deceiving.
The term "post-truth" denotes a different kind of experience when the line between truth and falsehood is blurred. In our digital and virtual age, reality and fiction, truthfulness and falsehood, are woven together from the very beginning. What is true and what is a lie is determined by how phenomena and statements appear and are displayed, how they are performed and predicted. This shift challenges the historical philosophical opposite pair of philosophy and calls for further investigation. Lies are no longer statements but media spectacles that follow the logic of performativity, rather than a discursive logic.
The purpose of this study is to develop a philosophical study of how the meaning of lies is transformed in an era of "post-truth". Overall, the project wants to test how the new meaning of lies reveals a crisis of meaning where new forms of fascism and anti-democratic authoritarianism flourish. The goal of these nascent forms of fascism does not seem to be to dupe the truth but rather to use new strategies of "organized lies". The present study presents philosophical reflections on the changing meaning of lies as a spectacle of meaning from which new forms of fascism emerge in a global technological-capitalist world.
The term "post-truth" denotes a different kind of experience when the line between truth and falsehood is blurred. In our digital and virtual age, reality and fiction, truthfulness and falsehood, are woven together from the very beginning. What is true and what is a lie is determined by how phenomena and statements appear and are displayed, how they are performed and predicted. This shift challenges the historical philosophical opposite pair of philosophy and calls for further investigation. Lies are no longer statements but media spectacles that follow the logic of performativity, rather than a discursive logic.
The purpose of this study is to develop a philosophical study of how the meaning of lies is transformed in an era of "post-truth". Overall, the project wants to test how the new meaning of lies reveals a crisis of meaning where new forms of fascism and anti-democratic authoritarianism flourish. The goal of these nascent forms of fascism does not seem to be to dupe the truth but rather to use new strategies of "organized lies". The present study presents philosophical reflections on the changing meaning of lies as a spectacle of meaning from which new forms of fascism emerge in a global technological-capitalist world.
Final report
During the sabbatical year I worked the development of the proposed philosophical investigation of the transformation of the meaning of lie in the so-called “post-truth” society. To pursue the overarching goal to show how the transformation of the meaning of lie reveals a crisis of meaning from whichnew forms of fascism and anti-democratic authoritarianism flourish today, I divided the work in three focuses of study and activities.
1) The first focus of my research was directed to develop the thesis presented in my former studies on the fascism of ambiguity as a crisis and mutation of senses and meanings. I dedicated special attention to how hegemonies have been broken along modern and contemporary thought and how these broken hegemonies correspond to a loss of the truth of truth. The study of the philosopher Reiner Schürmann's work and of his major opus “Broken Hegemonies” contributed to deepen the sense of ambiguity of senses and meaning which lay ground for new forms of fascism and authoritarianism today. In the realm of this first focus of my research I organized the first international Conference on his work at Södertörn University which gathered world-known specialists on his work. I also wrote an entry on “Ambiguity” for Contemporanea, A Glossary for the Twenty-First Century, which will come out 2024, by MIT press.
2) The second focus of my research was on the transformation of the meaning of lie in the history of philosophy. I studied the concepts of lie from Plato, Augustin and Kant to Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida. I investigated the existential, logic and political dimensions of lie. The researched on the different senses of lie in philosophical tradition: the epistemological meaning of falsehood, the moral meaning of lie and the aesthetic meaning of myth and fiction. I devoted a part of this investigation to Michel de Montaigne’s concept of belie, (dementir), extending it to the problem of denegation and negationiosm today.
3) The third focus was on the concept of simulacre, and simulation proposed mainly by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, showing how the dynamics of image-producing in post-truth condition substitutes and destroys the meaning of reality and the reality of meanings. In question is how simulacre and simulation of reality stage a spectacle of meaning in which meanings are imploded when becoming ambiguous and exchangeable. Modern lies have a performative character in contrast to the logic discursive meaning of lies. In my study it became clear that while the historical form of fascism and totalitarianism is a “political of lies” promulgated and propagated as absolute truth, the new form relies on a spectacle of lies in which lies become object of belief precisely when taken as lies and rendered ambiguous an exchangeable with any truth. At stake here is an attempt to destroy truth's veracity. As object of mediatic spectacles, truths and lies are no longer mere statements but spectacles, following laws of the performativity of language and image rather than of discursive logic.
Final result
The second and third focus of the research (2, 3) was mainly developed during my academic visit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), from August to December 2022, at the Department of Philosophy at the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC). There I held seminars of the transformation of the meaning of lies. I also gave public lectures and published some articles (see List of publication).
Based on my studies during the sabbatical year 2022, I wrote a manuscript entitled Mellan lögnen: ett begreppsundresökande om tvetydighetens fascism which will be published 2024, by Faethon Förlag, Stockholm.
1) The first focus of my research was directed to develop the thesis presented in my former studies on the fascism of ambiguity as a crisis and mutation of senses and meanings. I dedicated special attention to how hegemonies have been broken along modern and contemporary thought and how these broken hegemonies correspond to a loss of the truth of truth. The study of the philosopher Reiner Schürmann's work and of his major opus “Broken Hegemonies” contributed to deepen the sense of ambiguity of senses and meaning which lay ground for new forms of fascism and authoritarianism today. In the realm of this first focus of my research I organized the first international Conference on his work at Södertörn University which gathered world-known specialists on his work. I also wrote an entry on “Ambiguity” for Contemporanea, A Glossary for the Twenty-First Century, which will come out 2024, by MIT press.
2) The second focus of my research was on the transformation of the meaning of lie in the history of philosophy. I studied the concepts of lie from Plato, Augustin and Kant to Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida. I investigated the existential, logic and political dimensions of lie. The researched on the different senses of lie in philosophical tradition: the epistemological meaning of falsehood, the moral meaning of lie and the aesthetic meaning of myth and fiction. I devoted a part of this investigation to Michel de Montaigne’s concept of belie, (dementir), extending it to the problem of denegation and negationiosm today.
3) The third focus was on the concept of simulacre, and simulation proposed mainly by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, showing how the dynamics of image-producing in post-truth condition substitutes and destroys the meaning of reality and the reality of meanings. In question is how simulacre and simulation of reality stage a spectacle of meaning in which meanings are imploded when becoming ambiguous and exchangeable. Modern lies have a performative character in contrast to the logic discursive meaning of lies. In my study it became clear that while the historical form of fascism and totalitarianism is a “political of lies” promulgated and propagated as absolute truth, the new form relies on a spectacle of lies in which lies become object of belief precisely when taken as lies and rendered ambiguous an exchangeable with any truth. At stake here is an attempt to destroy truth's veracity. As object of mediatic spectacles, truths and lies are no longer mere statements but spectacles, following laws of the performativity of language and image rather than of discursive logic.
Final result
The second and third focus of the research (2, 3) was mainly developed during my academic visit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), from August to December 2022, at the Department of Philosophy at the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC). There I held seminars of the transformation of the meaning of lies. I also gave public lectures and published some articles (see List of publication).
Based on my studies during the sabbatical year 2022, I wrote a manuscript entitled Mellan lögnen: ett begreppsundresökande om tvetydighetens fascism which will be published 2024, by Faethon Förlag, Stockholm.