Abstract
Starting from the term ‘alternative facts’ and its epistemological implications, three fields of discourse are brought together: that of the public rhetoric of a new political ‘Generation Fake’, that of postmodern or post-structuralist media theory, and that of fictional epistemologies as found in examples of postmodern literature and contemporary film. The aim of this is to examine the epistemological content of the new political rhetoric of the postfactual, on the one hand with regard to the theory of reality on which it is based, and on the other hand with regard to the theory of truth that it challenges.
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Notes
- 1.
In the course of the translation of the original German-language article – in September 2022 – no more content revisions were made, so that, among other things, no mention is found here of Trump’s more than dubious role in the Capitol riots.
- 2.
Since this article originally appeared in German, I cite here a German-language Wikipedia entry, which – like all subsequent citations from German-language sources – has been translated into English.
- 3.
See the un-words since 2010 (Unwort des Jahres 2019). The year before, 2016, postfaktisch (post-factual) was chosen as word of the year by the German Language Society (Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache 2016), while in the UK ‘post-truth’ was chosen as word of the year in the same year (Oxford Languages 2016); these terms certainly paved the way for Conway’s alternative facts.
- 4.
Namely, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Vorspiel zu einer Philosophie der Zukunft from 1886.
- 5.
See also Baudrillard’s short article, published in German in 1986, “Jenseits von Wahr und Falsch, oder Die Hinterlist des Bildes”.
- 6.
In the original publication of this article, I cite from Die Agonie des Realen (Baudrillard 1978), an early German translation of La Précession des Simulacres, whereas in the present version, I cite from Simulacra and Simulation (Baudrillard 1994), a later English translation with revisions by Baudrillard.
- 7.
- 8.
While Zoglauer and Nichols argue against a radical constructivism of postmodern provenance, Fuller makes a strong case for a radical social constructivism and thus argues for truth relativism. See also the contribution by Thomas Zoglauer in this volume.
- 9.
- 10.
This is only in passing, although the film spends some narrative effort discussing the extent to which the literary quality of the novel suffers by the author not letting Harold die at the end. She discusses this with, among others, a professor of literature, whom she can only convince by ultimately rewriting the entire novel to fit the new ending (cf. Foster 2006, 95:05–95:25, 97:43–99:02, and 99:18–99:21).
- 11.
In his Poietike, for example, Aristotle says: “Epic and tragic poetry, furthermore comedy and dithyramb poetry, as well as – for the most part – flute and zitherplaying; they are all, considered as a whole, imitations” (Aristoteles 1994, p. 5).
- 12.
One can also ‘read this out of’ the Poietike.
- 13.
From which, for reasons of space, I can only quote excerpts, as the dialogue (Abrahamson 2015, 25:23–30:00) lasts about 5 min.
- 14.
At the same time, Jack’s initial epistemology is anything but simple. When Jack explains the world to himself and thus to the audience in an inner monologue, it is full of speculative ad hoc constructions and inconsistencies: “There’s Room, then Outer Space, with all the TV planets, then Heaven. Plant is real, but not trees. Spiders are real, and one time the mosquito that was sucking my blood, but squirrels and dogs are just TV, except Lucky. He’s my dog who might come someday. Monsters are too big to be real, and the sea. The TV persons are flat and made of colors, but me and you are real. […] Old Nick, I don’t know if he’s real, maybe half” (Abrahamson 2015, 10:21–11:08). Thus, the kidnapper Old Nick does not quite fit into Jack’s ontology and, because he is the only one who can enter and leave the room, keep appearing and disappearing from Jack’s perspective there, is considered ‘maybe half-real’ by Jack. In contrast, Jack ascribes a reality to his imaginary dog Lucky, even though he is not – according to Jack’s logic, not yet – in the room: “He’s my dog who might come someday” (Abrahamson 2015, 10:48).
- 15.
Conway’s interview on Meet the Press can be found all over the web, including at NBC itself (NBC News 2017). The quote begins at 5:34; the keyword ‘alternative facts’ is mentioned before at 4:16.
- 16.
She even does so in the same interview at 4:31 and elsewhere.
- 17.
See for example Petersen (2007, p. 9 ff.).
- 18.
See Petersen (2003, p. 42 ff.) on this and the following.
- 19.
This, at least, the length of the English edition from the year 2000 quoted here.
- 20.
For the following, see also the contribution by Peter Klimczak in this volume.
- 21.
In particular, to Rudolf Carnap’s 1936 article “Wahrheit und Bewährung (Truth and Confirmation)” (Carnap 1977).
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Petersen, C. (2023). Stranger than Fiction: On Alternative Facts and Fictional Epistemologies. In: Klimczak, P., Zoglauer, T. (eds) Truth and Fake in the Post-Factual Digital Age. Springer, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40406-2_4
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