From Postmodernity to a Post-Truth Society?

Abstract

In the last few years, a new concept ñ the ìpost-truthî ñ has developed
in the Western society. According to its definition, it describes a
state, in which the truth ceases to play the usual role it had in our
social life and gets replaced by alternative facts and truths. However,
in order to discuss correctly the ìpost-truthî phenomenon, some
conditions have to be fulfilled: the ìpost-truthî cannot be approached
without questioning the veracity of its antithesis, the ìtruth societyî;
the ìpost-truthî can only exist in liberal democracies and only in
the field of political communication; and lastly, the ìpost-truthî is
the logical consequence of the postmodern relativization of the truth.
Given these preconditions, the paper focuses on the analysis of these
specific points in the attempt to prove the irreversible connection
between postmodernism and ìpost-truthî.