To rebuild belief in the power and value of truth, we can’t dodge its complexity. Truths can be and often are difficult to understand, discover, explain, verify. They are also disturbingly easy to hide, distort, abuse or twist. Often we cannot claim with any certainty to know the truth. We need to take stock of the various kinds of real and supposed truths out there and understand how to test their authenticity.
History and philosophy can be our guides, the former enabling us to see how the idea of truth has actually been used and abused, the latter helping us to see how it should ideally be. They can also show us that with honest intent and clarity of mind, we can guard against such misuse and see that the claim that we live in a post-truth world is the most pernicious untruth of them all. It serves the interests of those who have the most to fear from the truth, plain and simple or not.
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