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A Political Theory of Post-Truth pp 51–85Cite as

Enabling Post-truth: Mediatisation and Affect

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Abstract

This chapter first analyses the context of post-truth, namely, mediatisation, understood as the dominance of media logic in most social spheres. Such dominance has profound influence on both the political and the personal domains. In both cases, affective capacity has become of prime importance since encounters primarily take place in and through the media, meaning that one’s social existence depends on the effectiveness of leaving an affective imprint on others. A theory of affective capacity is provided through a snapshot of the philosophy of Spinoza, focusing primarily on the centrality of striving to persevere in existence. The latter, in turn, refers to a deficit at the heart of existence which is the cause of a relentless (but futile) desire to achieve the pleasure of fullness.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Crucially, the value attached to the relationship with verifiable facts (or, at least, to the very attempt or possibility of establishing such a relationship) markedly differs between post-truth and pre-post-truth (not to be confused with Truth ) environments (as shown in the Chapter 1).

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  1. Department of Social Sciences, LCC International University, Klaipeda, Lithuania

    Ignas Kalpokas

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Kalpokas, I. (2019). Enabling Post-truth: Mediatisation and Affect. In: A Political Theory of Post-Truth. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97713-3_3

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