Dorota CHABRAJSKA, A Transvaluation of Truth: Towards a Double-edged Concept


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The essay explores the significance of the concept of truth in Western culture. The author describes the role of the value of truth in public debate, which, until the modern times, universally accepted the correspondence theory of truth and presupposed the freedom of expression as the fundamental condition for the genuineness and rationality of the discourse. Against this background, the author points out to the existence of a bond between freedom and truth in the human conscience, evident in the decisions taken by all those who—living in a totalitarian reality—gave their lives rather than agreed to question the truth they had recognized. The author then notes that the postwar time brought an erosion of the belief in the importance of truth in public debate. The theory of society proposed by representatives of the Frankfurt School of philosophy, specifically by Herbert Marcuse, rested on the concept of repressive tolerance precluding freedom of speech, in particular to the non-leftist participants in public debate. In recent decades, it has been political correctness which continually serves as the practical tool of introducing Marcuse’s concept of tolerance in practice and which effectively delineates the range of themes allowed to be covered by public debate together with their preferred interpretations. Just as the twentieth-century totalitarianisms created the phenomenon of the dissident, modern day offensive of political correctness and “correct” thinking has resulted, inadvertently, in the rise of the outsider: one who does not wish to see the world through the “mandatory” lens. It is in reference to such individuals, not infrequently called conspiration theorists, that the concept of post-truth has been reinvented. The question remains, though, whether the adjective “post-truth” actually describes the attitudes of such people or should rather be used about the views of the campaigners for “correct” thinking shaped by appeals to emotion and personal belief. The present considerations call for a continuation which would involve a scrutiny of the place of truth in public debate concerning issues such as religion, identity politics, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate alarmism, the so-called green new deal, mass migration, and the roots and the accomplishments of the Western tradition.

Keywords: truth, theories of truth, public debate, totalitarianism, critical theory, repressive tolerance, political correctness, post-truth

Contact: John Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
E-mail: ethos@kul.lublin.pl
Phone: + 48 81 4453218
https://pracownik.kul.pl/dorota.chabrajska/kontakt
http://www.ethos.lublin.pl/index.php?mod=article&aid=204



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  1. ISSN 0860-8024
  2. e-ISSN 2720-5355
  3. The Republic of Poland Ministry of Science and Higher Education Value: 100.00
  4. Quarterly “Ethos” is indexed by the following databases: EBSCO, CEEOL, Index Copernicus (ICV 2017: 55.26), Philosopher’s Index, ERIH Plus.
  5. DOI Prefix 10.12887