Post-truth and existential history

Abstract

Study of three defining phases of modern intellectual history that have contributed to the emergence of post-truth: the critique of Kantian universal reason with Soren Kierkegaard and Miguel de Unamuno; Lebensphilosophie o philosophy of life with Wilhelm Dilthey and José Ortega y Gasset and their emphasis on affectivity and the individual cognitive perspective as legitimate epistemological paths; and postmodernity that favors a fragmented and a-systematic thought that is appropriate to the specific situations of the individual subject.  George Orwell’s essay, «Looking Back on the Spanish War», contains ideas that are especially perceptive and useful about the position to be adopted by the writer in order not to sacrifice his or her commitment to respect and defend factual truth and its interpretation according to reliable and genuine criteria.  The article evaluates the five constitutive traits of post-truth and analyses several texts of contemporary fiction that actualize the concept of existential history as the narrative historical mode with which to overcome the methodological insufficiencies of conventional history.