The Fragile Truth - What Post-Truth Does to Our Common World

The author starts from the simple observation that truth has lost prestige. Amid fake news, post-truths and media manipulation, it is no longer even a matter of deceiving others, but rather of abolishing the very criterion of truth.

The weakness of democratic thought reveals itself when confronted with emotion, resentment, spectacle. Truth is fragile, because it requires courage.

A rigorous and clear text. Truth lives because it can be hurt. Lies are solid, impenetrable. Because they are dead.

Myriam Revault d’Allonnes (born in 1943, in Paris) is one of the great contemporary French political thinkers. A disciple of Paul Ricœur and a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, she dedicated her work to reflecting on ethics, power and responsibility. In Fragile Truth, she reaffirms a dangerous idea.