Taking Words Literally: Cratylism in the Post-Truth Age

Abstract

Since 2016, the term “post-truth” has become ubiquitous in news-reporting as a catch-all for the present age: a time of seemingly unprecedented mistrust over public truth, and the deliberate weaponisation of this uncertainty. While the consequences of this state are widely discussed, for example during political election campaigns and global health crises such as COVID-19, a clear understanding of its systemic causes is more tenuous. Consequentially, the post-truth state may even be viewed as a distinctly contemporary phenomenon, for which there is no historical precedent. This thesis rejects such a notion. In its two chapters, ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ are explored as expressions of language and, ultimately, as constructs, ideas which have existed in philosophical and spiritual texts for thousands of years. The study begins with Plato’s Cratylus, and traces a path through history to the 20th century and into the post-truth age. It considers scholars and ideas including Genette’s fallen language, Wittgenstein’s beetle in a box, Benjamin’s sphere of art, Heidegger’s origins of art, Cassirer’s myth of the state, Boorstin’s image state, and Baudrillard’s hyperreality. By doing so, this thesis refutes the notion that the post-truth age exists in isolation by presenting it as the logical development of long-standing debates as to the natures of reality, art, and truth. Further, it considers the ongoing role of writer, across media and form, in investigating these natures, using their works as sites of exercise. As a result of this study, two key conclusions are drawn: (1) our current language system is no longer able to adequately describe its surrounding world; (2) societal misunderstandings as to the nature (or existence) of “objective truth” and “objective reality”, intensified by ever-expanding media systems, will inevitably lead to consequences synonymous with those of “post-truth”. If society wishes to alleviate such consequences of the post-truth age, this thesis suggests that these two root causes must first be addressed.