Project: RECLAIM

Author: Maximilian Conrad

This discussion paper outlines the RECLAIM project’s ideal-typical understanding of the post-truth condition. Such an ideal-typical understanding is necessary as a heuristic device for the empirical analysis of the various phenomena that – collectively and through their interplay – constitute the post-truth phenomenon. Moreover, an ideal-typical definition helps to avoid unnecessarily dichotomous questions about whether or not our age is indeed one of post-truth. By contrast, the proposed ideal type allows for the assessment of the degree to which signs of a coming post-truth condition are already observable in liberal democracies. Drawing on existing definitions of post-truth as well as related concepts, the paper argues that post-truth is characterized by more than a declining of role of facts and analysis in politics and political debate. Instead, the presumed substitution of objective fact with emotion as a key factor informing public opinion...