Download or read book Power and Truth in Political Discourse written by Vassil Hristov Anastassov and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-17 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book deals with the linguistic base of political discourse. It offers a theoretical model of the imbalance of power in human interaction from language communication to socio-political relations. It uses the basic principles of social semiotics to create a match between sociolinguistics and political science. The structural “semiology” of Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes’ and Lévi-Strauss’ “myth” theories are referred to in support of the idea that human collective psychology is regularly manipulated by politically-based ideological narratives that “go without saying”. In the movement “out” of the structuralist binary oppositions between “right” and “wrong”, Derrida’s post-structural “deconstruction” contributes to the critique of western liberal democracy as regards “equality” and communal knowledge about the political truth. The book will appeal to researchers and university students of both linguistics and political science, as well as specialists in philosophy of language, philosophy of politics, communication theory and social psychology.
Download or read book Post Truth and Political Discourse written by David Block and published by Palgrave Pivot. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book David Block draws on analytical techniques from Critical Discourse Studies to critically investigate truth, truths, the propagation of ignorance and post-truth. Focusing on corrupt discourses and agnotology, he explores the role of anti-intellectualism, emotion and social media in the cultural creation, legitimisation and dissemination of ignorance. While encompassing analysis of discourses on Donald Trump, Brexit, climate change and the Alt-Right, Block furthers our understanding of this global phenomena by providing a revealing analysis of political communications relating to corruption scandals involving the Spanish conservative party. Through an innovative theoretical framework that combines critical discourse and discourse historical approaches with nuanced political analysis, he uncovers the rhetorical means by which esoteric truths and misleading narratives about corruption are created and demonstrates how they become, in their turn, corrupt discourses. This original work offers fresh insights for scholars of Discourse Analysis, Sociolinguistics, Politics, Cultural and Communication Studies, and will also appeal to general readers with an interest in political communication and Spanish politics.
Download or read book Truth and Governance written by William A. Galston and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking the long view of conflicts between truth and political power What role does truth play in government? In context of recent political discourse around the globe—and especially in the United States—it is easy to believe that truth, in the form of indisputable facts, is a matter of debate. But it's also important to remember that since ancient times, every religious and philosophical tradition has wrestled with this question. In this volume, scholars representing ten traditions—Western and Eastern, religious and secular—address the nature of truth and its role in government. Among the questions they address: When is deception permissible, or even a good thing? What remedies are necessary and useful when governments fail in their responsibilities to be truthful? The authors consider the relationship between truth and governance in democracies, but also in non-democratic regimes. Although democracy is distinctive in requiring truth as a fundamental basis for governing, non-democratic forms of government also cannot do without truth entirely. If ministers cannot give candid advice to rulers, the government's policies are likely to proceed on false premises and therefore fail. If rulers do not speak truthfully to their people, trust will erode. Each author in this book addresses a common set of issues: the nature of truth; the morality of truth-telling; the nature of government, which shapes each tradition's understanding of the relationship between governance and truth; the legitimacy and limits of regulating speech; and remedies when truth becomes divorced from governance. Truth and Governance will open readers' eyes to the variety of possible approaches to the relationship between truth and governance. Readers will find views they thought self-evident challenged and will come away with a greater understanding of the importance of truth and truth-telling, and of how to counter deliberate deception.
Download or read book Why Leaders Lie written by John J. Mearsheimer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an analysis of the lying behavior of political leaders, discussing the reasons why it occurs, the different types of lies, and the costs and benefits to the public and other countries that result from it, with examples from the recent past.
Download or read book Discourse Power Address written by Stuart Price and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Discourse Power Address' identifies the existence of 'directive' address, a form of strategic communication which is employed in a number of dominant practices, including Advertising, Politics, Public Relations and Corporate representation. Stuart Price
Download or read book Discourse and Truth and Parresia written by Michel Foucault and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-07-19 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An invaluable book” of late-career lectures that reveal Foucault’s perspective on truth, truth-telling, and the nature of discourse (Choice). This volume collects a series of lectures given by the renowned French thinker Michel Foucault. The first part presents a talk, Parresia, delivered at the University of Grenoble in 1982. The second presents a series of lectures entitled “Discourse and Truth,” given at the University of California, Berkeley in 1983, which appears here for the first time in its full and correct form. Together, these lectures provide an unprecedented account of Foucault’s reading of the Greek concept of parresia, often translated as “truth-telling” or “frank speech.” The lectures trace the transformation of this concept across Greek, Roman, and early Christian thought, from its origins in pre-Socratic Greece to its role as a central element of the relationship between teacher and student. In mapping the concept’s history, Foucault’s concern is not to advocate for free speech; rather, his aim is to explore the moral and political position one must occupy in order to take the risk to speak truthfully. These lectures—carefully edited and including notes and introductory material to fully illuminate Foucault’s insights—are a major addition to Foucault’s English language corpus.
Download or read book Power Knowledge written by Michel Foucault and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1980-11-12 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michel Foucault has become famous for a series of books that have permanently altered our understanding of many institutions of Western society. He analyzed mental institutions in the remarkable Madness and Civilization; hospitals in The Birth of the Clinic; prisons in Discipline and Punish; and schools and families in The History of Sexuality. But the general reader as well as the specialist is apt to miss the consistent purposes that lay behind these difficult individual studies, thus losing sight of the broad social vision and political aims that unified them. Now, in this superb set of essays and interviews, Foucault has provided a much-needed guide to Foucault. These pieces, ranging over the entire spectrum of his concerns, enabled Foucault, in his most intimate and accessible voice, to interpret the conclusions of his research in each area and to demonstrate the contribution of each to the magnificent -- and terrifying -- portrait of society that he was patiently compiling. For, as Foucault shows, what he was always describing was the nature of power in society; not the conventional treatment of power that concentrates on powerful individuals and repressive institutions, but the much more pervasive and insidious mechanisms by which power "reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives" Foucault's investigations of prisons, schools, barracks, hospitals, factories, cities, lodgings, families, and other organized forms of social life are each a segment of one of the most astonishing intellectual enterprises of all time -- and, as this book proves, one which possesses profound implications for understanding the social control of our bodies and our minds.
Download or read book Political English written by Thomas Docherty and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From post-truth politics to “no-platforming” on university campuses, the English language has been both a potent weapon and a crucial battlefield for our divided politics. In this important and wide-ranging intervention, Thomas Docherty explores the politics of the English language, its implication in the dynamics of political power and the spaces it offers for dissent and resistance. From the authorised English of the King James Bible to the colonial project of University English Studies, this book develops a powerful history for contemporary debates about propaganda, free speech and truth-telling in our politics. Taking examples from the US, UK and beyond - from debates about the Second Amendment and free-speech on campus, to the Iraq War and the Grenfell Tower fire - this book is a powerful and polemical return to Orwell's observation that a degraded political language is intimately connected to an equally degraded political culture.
Download or read book Speaking Power to Truth written by Michael Keren and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Online discourse has created a new media environment for contributions to public life, one that challenges the social significance of the role of public intellectuals--intellectuals who, whether by choice or by circumstance, offer commentary on issues of the day. The value of such commentary is rooted in the assumption that, by virtue of their training and experience, intellectuals possess knowledge--that they understand what constitutes knowledge with respect to a particular topic, are able to distinguish it from mere opinion, and are in a position to define its relevance in different contexts. When intellectuals comment on matters of public concern, they are accordingly presumed to speak truth, whether they are writing books or op-ed columns or appearing as guests on radio and television news programs. At the same time, with increasing frequency, discourse on public life is taking place online. This new digital environment is characterized by abundance--an abundance of speakers, discussion, and access. But has this abundance of discourse--this democratization of knowledge, as some describe it--brought with it a corresponding increase in truth? Casting doubt on the assertion that online discourse, with its proliferation of voices, will somehow yield collective wisdom, Speaking Power to Truth raises concerns that this wealth of digitally enabled commentary is, in fact, too often bereft of the hallmarks of intellectual discourse: an epistemological framework and the provision of evidence to substantiate claims. Instead, the pursuit of truth finds itself in competition with the quest for public reputation, access to influence, and enhanced visibility. But as knowledge is drawn into the orbit of power, and as the line between knowledge and opinion is blurred, what role will the public intellectual play in the promotion and nurturing of democratic processes and goals? In exploring the implications of the digital transition, the contributors to Speaking Power to Truth provide both empirical evidence of, and philosophical reflection on, the current and future role of the public intellectual in a technologically mediated public sphere. With contributions by Karim-Aly Kassam, Barrry Cooper, Jacob G. Foster, Richard Hawkins, Michael Keren, Boaz Miller, Liz Pirnie, and Eleanor Townsley.
Download or read book Post Truth Fake News and Democracy written by Johan Farkas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-23 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western societies are under siege, as fake news, post-truth and alternative facts are undermining the very core of democracy. This dystopian narrative is currently circulated by intellectuals, journalists and policy makers worldwide. In this book, Johan Farkas and Jannick Schou deliver a comprehensive study of post-truth discourses. They critically map the normative ideas contained in these and present a forceful call for deepening democracy. The dominant narrative of our time is that democracy is in a state of emergency caused by social media, changes to journalism and misinformed masses. This crisis needs to be resolved by reinstating truth at the heart of democracy, even if this means curtailing civic participation and popular sovereignty. Engaging with critical political philosophy, Farkas and Schou argue that these solutions neglect the fact that democracy has never been about truth alone: it is equally about the voice of the democratic people. Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy delivers a sobering diagnosis of our times. It maps contemporary discourses on truth and democracy, foregrounds their normative foundations and connects these to historical changes within liberal democracies. The book will be of interest to students and scholars studying the current state and future of democracy, as well as to a politically informed readership.
Download or read book Post Truth and Political Discourse written by David Block and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-26 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book David Block draws on analytical techniques from Critical Discourse Studies to critically investigate truth, truths, the propagation of ignorance and post-truth. Focusing on corrupt discourses and agnotology, he explores the role of anti-intellectualism, emotion and social media in the cultural creation, legitimisation and dissemination of ignorance. While encompassing analysis of discourses on Donald Trump, Brexit, climate change and the Alt-Right, Block furthers our understanding of this global phenomena by providing a revealing analysis of political communications relating to corruption scandals involving the Spanish conservative party. Through an innovative theoretical framework that combines critical discourse and discourse historical approaches with nuanced political analysis, he uncovers the rhetorical means by which esoteric truths and misleading narratives about corruption are created and demonstrates how they become, in their turn, corrupt discourses. This original work offers fresh insights for scholars of Discourse Analysis, Sociolinguistics, Politics, Cultural and Communication Studies, and will also appeal to general readers with an interest in political communication and Spanish politics.
Download or read book What Snowflakes Get Right written by Ulrich Baer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Angry debates about polarizing speakers have roiled college campuses. Conservatives accuse universities of muzzling unpopular opinions, betraying their values of open inquiry; students sympathetic to the left openly advocate against completely unregulated speech, asking for "safe spaces" and protection against visiting speakers and even curricula they feel disrespects them. Some even call these students "snowflakes"-too fragile to be exposed to opinions and ideas that challenge their worldviews. How might universities resolve these debates about free speech, which pit their students' welfare against the university's commitment to free inquiry and open debate? Ulrich Baer here provides a new way of looking at this dilemma. He explains how the current dichotomy is false and is not really about the feelings of offended students, or protecting an open marketplace of ideas. Rather, what is really at stake is our democracy's commitment to equality, and the university's critical role as an arbiter of truth. He shows how and why free speech has become the rallying cry that forges an otherwise uneasy alliance of liberals and ultra-conservatives, and why this First Amendment absolutism is untenable in law and society in general. He draws on law, philosophy, and his extensive experience as a university administrator to show that the lens of equality can resolve this impasse, and can allow the university to serve as a model for democracy that upholds both truth and equality as its founding principles.
Download or read book Do They Walk Like They Talk written by Louis M. Imbeau and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-16 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Bush’s 1988 campaign pledge, "Read my lips: no new taxes," has become a mantra for those who distrust politicians and bureaucrats. The gulf between what political leaders say and do seems to be widening, and in democratic societies around the world, contributing to an atmosphere of cynicism and apathy among the citizenry. Understanding the characteristics and functions of speech in policy processes is a requirement for trying to overcome this problem; indeed, politicians and bureaucrats spend a good proportion of their time and resources discoursing, i.e., writing, speaking, and publishing. However, there has been scant analysis of political discourse; the aim of this book is to fill this analytical gap, by exploring political speech from a variety of perspectives, including normative, epistemological, and empirical. Incorporating insights from economics, political science, philosophy, and law, and evidence from the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Turkey, and the EU, the book addresses a wide variety of timely issues, including:. Fiscal discipline in speeches vs budget balance: Is an improvement (deterioration) of the budget balance preceded by a more (less) fiscally disciplined discourse? Revenues and spending forecasted in budget speeches vs realised budget outcomes: Is there a systematic bias? If so, how can we explain it? Electoral pledges vs actual realisations: Do governments follow up on their electoral pledges? Ideological stance in party publications vs spending and revenues of party governments: Do parties of the right and the left speak different languages? How can we validly classify a government as of the left or of the right? Is there a systematic difference between governments of the right and of the left in terms of their policy? Speeches by central bank officers vs monetary policy: Can changes in monetary policy be predicted by official speeches? The political business cycle: How can taking into consideration the speech-action relationship strengthen (or threaten) our knowledge about electoral and partisan cycles in public spending? Other questions explored include: Should policy makers always tell the truth and all the truth? What are the benefits and the costs of transparency? How can we resolve the apparent contradiction between the democratic demand for transparency and the efficiency requirement of secrecy in many policy areas (budget preparation, monetary policy, foreign policy, security, etc.)? Under which conditions is secrecy acceptable in a democratic society? To what extent may deception and lies lead to a breach of trust or to power abuse? What are the most efficient institutional mechanisms to prevent such abuse? Collectively, the authors present new insights for understanding political process and government activity, and suggest avenues for further research.
Download or read book Speaking Power to Truth written by Michael Keren and published by Athabasca University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-20 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Online discourse has created a new media environment for contributions to public life, one that challenges the social significance of the role of public intellectuals—intellectuals who, whether by choice or by circumstance, offer commentary on issues of the day. The value of such commentary is rooted in the assumption that, by virtue of their training and experience, intellectuals possess knowledge—that they understand what constitutes knowledge with respect to a particular topic, are able to distinguish it from mere opinion, and are in a position to define its relevance in different contexts. When intellectuals comment on matters of public concern, they are accordingly presumed to speak truth, whether they are writing books or op-ed columns or appearing as guests on radio and television news programs. At the same time, with increasing frequency, discourse on public life is taking place online. This new digital environment is characterized by abundance—an abundance of speakers, discussion, and access. But has this abundance of discourse—this democratization of knowledge, as some describe it—brought with it a corresponding increase in truth? Casting doubt on the assertion that online discourse, with its proliferation of voices, will somehow yield collective wisdom, Speaking Power to Truth raises concerns that this wealth of digitally enabled commentary is, in fact, too often bereft of the hallmarks of intellectual discourse: an epistemological framework and the provision of evidence to substantiate claims. Instead, the pursuit of truth finds itself in competition with the quest for public reputation, access to influence, and enhanced visibility. But as knowledge is drawn into the orbit of power, and as the line between knowledge and opinion is blurred, what role will the public intellectual play in the promotion and nurturing of democratic processes and goals? In exploring the implications of the digital transition, the contributors to Speaking Power to Truth provide both empirical evidence of, and philosophical reflection on, the current and future role of the public intellectual in a technologically mediated public sphere. Contributions by Barry Cooper, Jacob Foster, Karim-Ally Kassam, Boaz Miller, Liz Pirnie, and Eleanor Townsley.
Download or read book Political Theory and Power written by Sarah Joseph and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book draws attention to certain significant changes in the way in which power has been defined and it also examines some of the critical responses which those changes have evoked. The objective is not to try and evolve a universally acceptable and comprehensive definition of power, and of realted terms like authority and influence. The argument of the book is that, that would be an impossible project since social and political theories themselves constitute an intervention into political discourse of a society and they may implicitly or explicitly embody a political perspective.
Download or read book Margins of Political Discourse written by Fred Reinhard Dallmayr and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Margins of political discourse" are those border zones where paradigms intersect and where issues of order and disorder, meaning and non-meaning must be continually renegotiated. Our age is marked by multiple dislocations, by political as well as philosophical paradigm shifts. Politically, a Europe-centered world order has given way to a decentered arena of global power struggles. Philosophically, traditional metaphysics -- itself a European legacy -- is making room for diverse modes of anti-foundationalism. In this situation, philosophy and political theory are bound to be decentered themselves, occupying a peculiar border zone in which traditional boundaries are blurred without being erased. This is the locus of Dallmayr's book. Located at the intersection of Continental and Anglo-American thought as well as at the border of philosophy and politics, Margins of Political Discourse explores the zone between polis and cosmopolis, between modernity and postmodernity, between reason and contingency, between immanence and transcendence.
Download or read book Foucault s Political Challenge written by Henrik Paul Bang and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Foucault's political framework for connecting political authority with practices of freedom. It starts from the older Foucault's claim that where there is obedience there cannot be government by truth. Then it shows how this claim runs like a red thread through his entire life project.
