The Sources of Post-truth in Current Thought

Abstract

Man can choose the truth; he can surrender to it, testify to it through doubt and anguish, or he can remain indifferent or renegade. In post-truth times, hermeneutics, in its tragic sense, is constituted as an antidote that surpasses the abyss of nothingness and absurdity, in pharmakon to recover and regain, through the exercise of freedom and a renewed encounter with Christianity, the meaning of things. Fake news, information bubbles, and the tyranny of digital companies dilute the truth into information. Philosophy has been alive with the effective presence of truth, of that truth that, as Vico said, is great and conquers everything. If the original character of truth has been lost, it is worth asking since when and why, and what historical and intellectual processes have led to the notion of post-truth. When, in human history, a notion of such importance as the truth leaves an empty place, it does not take long for that emptiness to be filled. Philosophy deals with the truth; it is the first object that man seeks and the ultimate meaning of asking every question. Probing the sources of post-truth in Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Pareyson will shed light on the possibility of saving truth. To have the truth in the post-truth era is to have a flash of light that affects the conception of politics, science, anthropology, psychology, metaphysics, aesthetics, and the sociology.