Metasemantics and intersectionality in the misinformation age : truth in political struggle
- cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
- xiii, 336 p. ; 22 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This book investigates the impact of misinformation and the role of truth in political struggle. It develops a theory of objective truth for political controversy over topics such as racism and gender, based on the insights of intersectionality, the Black feminist theory of interlocking systems of oppression. Truth is defined using the tools of model theory and formal semantics, but the theory also captures how social power dynamics strongly influence the operation of the concept of truth within the social fabric. Systemic ignorance, propagated through false speech and misinformation, sustains oppressive power structures and perpetuates systemic inequity. Truth tends to empower marginalized groups precisely because oppressive systems are maintained through systemic ignorance. If the truth sets people free, then power will work to obscure it. Hence, the rise of misinformation as a political weapon is a strategy of dominant power to undermine the political advancement of marginalized groups. Derek Egan Anderson is a lecturer in the philosophy department at Boston University, USA.
9783030733384
Political aspects Common fallacies Truth Political aspects Formal languages Common fallacies Intersectionality Sociology Active ignorance Analytic truth Black feminism Collins' law of oppression Controlling image Epistemic violence model General Metasemantic Adequacy (GMA) Interlocking systems Intersectional theory,truth Domination,Matrix Model-theoretic semantics Racism Realism Structural oppression White ignorance Social power dynamics