A Tale of Tub

1)Explain the symbols like Coats, Will,Three Brothers etc. with the reference to the Tale in “A Tale of a Tub”. 

Hello everyone, I am Dhruvita Dhameliya. Today I am writing about Jonathan Swift's satirical work  'A tale of a tub' and symbols.

 

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish poet, satirist, essayist, and political pamphleteer. He was born in Dublin, Ireland. He spent much of his early adult life in England before returning to Dublin to serve as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin for the last 30 years of his life. It was this later stage when he would write most of his greatest works. Best known as the author of  'A Modest Proposal (1729), Gulliver’s Travels (1726), and A Tale Of A Tub (1704), Swift is widely acknowledged as the greatest prose satirist in the history of English literature. 

In 1704, Swift anonymously released A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books. Tub, although widely popular with the masses, was harshly disapproved of by the Church of England. Ostensibly, it criticized religion, but Swift meant it as a parody of pride. Nonetheless, his writings earned him a reputation in London, and when the Tories came into power in 1710, they asked him to become editor of the Examiner, their official paper. After a time, he became fully immersed in the political landscape and began writing some of the most cutting and well-known political pamphlets of the day, including The Conduct of the Allies, an attack on the Whigs. Privy to the inner circle of Tory government, Swift laid out his private thoughts and feelings in a stream of letters to his beloved Stella. They would later be published as The Journal to Stella.

Jonathan Swift wrote A Tale of a Tub (published in 1704) not only to expound upon the hypocrisy of religion in early 18th century England, but to explore ideas about critics, oration, ancient and modern philosophies, digressions, and the nature of writing itself. These themes are all underscored with a satirical tone that takes religion, authors, and critics to task.

 The title refers to the tub that sailors used to toss out to distract whales from tipping their ships. The ship represents the status quo of the English government and its religious structure, while the whale is a symbol for the new ideas and controversies attempting to rock the ship: The government must keep dissent like Swift’s at bay.

The “A Tale of a Tub” sections describe the lives of three brothers:

 1)Peter - Roman catholic

2)Martin - Anglican Church or the church of England

3) Jack - protestant church

 Their father dies and they receive his will. He leaves them three coats, which the will stipulates that they should not alter or else they will ruin their futures. However, shoulder knots come into vogue, and the brothers, led by Peter, who represents the Catholic Church, begin to add to their coats. 

The narrator moves on to define critics and critique. The true critic, whether ancient or modern, is able to locate flaws that nobody else can find and takes pleasure in it. Writers should view them like mirrors and use this reflection to fix their work. 

Back in “A Tale of a Tub,” Peter is gaining more power over his brothers. Martin, who represents the Church of England, and Jack, who represents Puritanism, are both controlled by Peter. When they finally object, he kicks them out of the house, and they must go off on their own. This is symbolic of the Reformation. After this, there is a chapter that discusses the difference between ancient and modern philosophies as well as the art of writing a successful preface.

We then look back in on the brothers, who are trying to fix their coats by taking the extra ribbons, buttons, and lace off, an act which causes damage. Martin does it carefully, but Jack is careless and gets holes in his coat. This represents the differences in their religious outlooks and the extent to which they are deconstructing the old Catholic teachings.

Swift then moves on to a digression praising digressions. In fact, he is using these tangents to highlight ideas that support his main argument about the ridiculousness of religious infighting and dogma. Indeed, the brothers descend into this very type of argument and are constantly at odds. Peter and Martin vie for the attentions of various monarchs, while Jack becomes more extreme, developing an aversion to music. He also has his own set of followers who believe that they have an essence within themselves that must be released for the members to learn from each other. In the end, the author loses his train of thought. We can assume that the brothers argue into perpetuity.

That is story written by Swift, but in this simple story of three brothers he talked about many things parallel like religious, politics and social. He gave many symbols. Symbols are like that...

Three Coats : Three religious practices :

In the story three coats present three religious practicesThe three brothers' coats are the central symbol of A Tale of a Tub. Outwardly plain and simple, the coats are the brothers' sole inheritance from their father, who promises that they will last for a lifetime if cared for properly. In his will, he warns them against altering the coats in any way. These coats represent the practices of Christianity as originally revealed and commanded by God and as stipulated in the Bible (the father's will). Like the early Church written about in the New Testament, the brothers initially do a good job of sticking to the rules laid down by the will. It isn't long, however, before they are finding ways to excuse themselves from following the will too scrupulously when it conflicts with their immediate desires. This behavior is dramatized as a gradual altering of the coats in spite of the father's express wish to the contrary.

The individual alterations represent the different ways in which Christianity, in Swift's view, deviated from the practices and beliefs given in the Bible. The "flame-colored satin" that makes up the coats' lining, for instance, represents the concept of purgatory, regarded in the Catholic tradition as a place of purification for souls not yet worthy of heaven but not condemned to hell. To Swift, an Anglican living in post-Reformation England, this was a false doctrine that lacked any demonstrable basis in Scripture. The "Indian figures" embroidered on the coats are the statues and stained-glass images present in many Catholic churches, which Swift (like many other Protestants) saw as incompatible with the Bible's warnings against graven images. By the time the brothers finally realize the error of their ways, their coats (i.e., their practice of Christianity) have become barely recognizable.

Midway through the main narrative, however, Martin and Jack undergo a change of heart when a breach erupts between them and Peter (who claims to be the oldest). By showing how the brothers react to this disagreement, Swift praises or criticizes the three main Christian traditions represented in the England of his day. In the pre-Reformation era, the brothers were all prone to the same extravagances, adorning their coats with lace, fringe, and many other ornaments. Peter, who represents Catholicism, sticks to those extravagances and even multiplies them; he deliberately avoids consulting the will to see whether he is going astray. Martin, named after Martin Luther, represents the moderate Protestant tradition. He carefully and diligently strips away the forbidden ornaments from his coat while taking care not to harm the underlying fabric. Where something cannot be removed without damaging the original coat, he reluctantly lets it remain.

Jack, in contrast, rips away every shred of embroidery and fringe, tearing up the original underlying fabric in the process. His brand of reform, which Swift identifies with the Dissenters, is aggressive, destructive, and haphazard. Ultimately, Swift condemns Jack as motivated more by his hatred of Peter (i.e., resentment of the Catholic Church) than by a concern to live a moral life. He is a reactionary anti-Catholic rather than a Christian in his own right. However and significantly, Jack's extremes end up closely resembling Peter's as the rags worn by the one man come to look like the fringed finery worn by the other. Thus, both are satirized.

 WIll  : 

The father's will represents the Bible, which Swift regards as Christianity's fundamental instruction manual. Swift's paramount claim in A Tale of a Tub is that the Bible should be consulted for basic, immutable guidance on all Church matters. Practices prohibited by the Bible cannot and should not be embraced by the Church, while practices required by the Bible cannot simply be set aside. In their youth, the three brothers exemplify this kind of Christianity. The more closely the brothers adhere to the prescriptions of the will, the happier they seem to be and the more peaceful their consciences are.

All three brothers start off faithfully following the will, but they are gradually corrupted by outside influences. They stray from its obvious intent and, increasingly, from its directly stated rules, becoming ridiculous and superficial in the process. This behavior is provoked by a desire to fit in with the rest of the world, as illustrated in the middle of Chapter 2. There, the brothers realize that they will have to get creative if they want to give the appearance of following their father's wishes while actually ignoring them. They use Latinate terms to add an aura of respectability to their dubious behavior: failing to find permission to change their coats "totidem verbis" ("in so many words"), they start looking "totidem syllabis" ("in so many syllables"). Finally, they declare that their father's will allows them to add shoulder knots "totidem literis"

In the case of the allegorical story of the three brothers, the ultimate pre-text is the Bible: the father's last recorded words take the form of a will, a dead letter, defining and confining the ways in which the sons are to live their lives:

'You will find in my Will (here it is) full Instructions in every Particular

concerning the Wearing and Management of your Coats; wherein you must be

very exact, to avoid the Penalties I have appointed for every transgression

or Neglect, upon which your future Fortunes will entirely depend'.

because it contains the letters S, H, O, U, L, D, E, and R.

Peter, the most scholarly of the brothers, undergoes great intellectual contortions to avoid the document's clear restrictions. In addition to the "totidem literis" episode above, he declares that certain premises must be added to the will or else "multa absurda sequerentur" ("many absurdities will follow"). (He never specifies what those absurdities might be.) All of Peter's interpretive practices, along with the terms used to describe them, ultimately derive from a Catholic tradition that Swift views as legalistic, insincere, and self-serving.

The consequence of following this interpretive tradition is that both the clergy (Peter) and the congregants (Martin and Jack) grow further and further removed from the actual will. As early as Chapter 2, the brothers have agreed to "lock up" the will "in a strong-box, brought out of Greece or Italy," which symbolizes the use of Greek or Latin texts rather than vernacular translations. Here, Swift recalls and criticizes the Catholic Church's long history of forbidding vernacular Bibles, thereby preventing many adherents from reading Scripture for themselves. By the time the brothers go their separate ways in Chapter 4, Peter has begun to interpose himself as the will's sole interpreter, deciding its meaning on behalf of the others and pronouncing his decisions ex cathedra (with papal authority; literally, "from the chair").

Clearly, Peter - (the Catholic Church) is not cast in a good light in A Tale of a Tub. That's not to say, however, that Swift viewed all reforms as equally salutary. Martin (moderate Protestantism) and Jack (Dissent) successfully obtain their own copy of the will, which gives them the all-important ability to read it for themselves and judge how well they are following it. In itself, Swift implies, vernacular access to the Bible is a good thing, but a person can still go overboard in relying on Scripture. To this end, Swift ridicules Jack in Chapter 11 for using his father's will as an umbrella, a nightcap, and a bandage—the implication being that the Bible should not be viewed as a universal guide to mundane matters, such as diet and health care. Swift's stance seems to be that the Bible is the ultimate authority on Church doctrine and discipline but that it is foolish to see it as a substitute for all earthly wisdom.

THREE BROTHERS : 

Peter : 

Peter is the oldest of the three brothers who feature in A Tale of a Tub. At first, he and his brothers get along well, but once they have established themselves in society, Peter's arrogance begins to shine through. He demands to be revered and obeyed by his brothers and eventually ejects them from their shared home. Several of Peter's characteristics, including his name and his relative age, point to his status as a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church.

Martin : 

Martin is the middle-born of the three brothers. He initially respects and obliges his elder brother, Peter, despite the latter's increasingly strange behavior. When he is exiled and discovers that he has been disobeying his father's will, he takes careful but thorough steps to change his ways. His actions proceed from regard for what is right, not from hatred or resentment toward Peter. Named after Martin Luther, Martin represents what Swift viewed as the moderate Anglican tradition, avoiding the excesses the author ascribes to either Catholicism or Dissent.

Jack : 

Jack is the youngest of the three brothers. After he is exiled by Peter, he becomes consumed by hatred for his oldest brother and does everything he can to distance himself from him. Several of Jack's behaviors, such as fervent preaching and dogged opposition to Peter in even trivial things, mark him as a caricature of Dissent.

TALE and TUB : 

 Jonathan Swift wrote A Tale of a Tub (published in 1704) not only to expound upon the hypocrisy of religion in early 18th century England, but to explore ideas about critics, oration, ancient and modern philosophies, digressions, and the nature of writing itself. These themes are all underscored with a satirical tone that takes religion, authors, and critics to task. The title refers to the tub that sailors used to toss out to distract whales from tipping their ships. The ship represents the status quo of the English government and its religious structure, while the whale is a symbol for the new ideas and controversies attempting to rock the ship: The government must keep dissent like Swift’s at bay.

Although it’s been suggested that Swift intended to write a piece that was supportive of Protestantism (he was a clergyman in the Church of England), the structure of the piece and the consistent use of satire made it seem like he was denouncing all religion. The Anglican Church disapproved of his treatise, as did the monarchy. Even though he avoided admitting authorship of the piece, many assumed he had written it and it stunted his rise in the Church. 

       The title also referred that Tale = government , Whale= Thomas Hobbs and Tub = Jonathan Swift. Whale is used for attacking on something. 

Conclusion : 

A Tale of a Tub takes its own winding, unique course to set up an allegory for the state of religion in the early 18th century. The reader learns about Swift’s satirical view of religion, as well as about the nature of critique, tangential thought, and writing itself.

Words count : 2600 

References : https://www.supersummary.com/a-tale-of-a-tub/summary/

https://www.supersummary.com/a-tale-of-a-tub/summary/

 

characteristics of metaphysical poetry

1) Characteristics of metaphysical poetry:

Hello readers, today I am discussing about the characteristics of the metaphysical poetry in detail.

WHAT IS METAPHYSICAL POETRY?

• Meaning of  "Metaphysical":

                                          Literally 'Meta" means " beyond"  and "physics" means "physical nature". It was  Drayden  who first used the word, "Metaphysical"  in connection with Donne's affects the "Metaphysics" and Dr. Johnson confirmed the judgment of Dryden. Even since the word, Metaphysical has been used for Donne and his followers."Donne is metaphysical not only by virtue of his scholastic but by his deep reflective interest in the experience  of which his poetry is the expression .The  new Psychological Curiosity with which he writes of love and religion.

Metaphysical poetry refers to the poetry of the seventeenth century combining emotions with intellect often in unconventional ways. The style of poetry is considered to be founded by John Donne and followed by others. John Donne is the pioneer of the group it is also known as the "School of Donne." The other poets who followed the footsteps of John Donne were..

      John Donne

1)George Herbert :  1593 to 1633

2)Richard Crashaw : 1612 to 1649

3)Abraham Cowley : 1618 to 1667

4)Andrew Marvell :  1621 to 1678

5)Robert Southwell : 1561 to 1595

Literary critic and poet Samuel Johnson first coined the term 'metaphysical poetry' in his book 'Lives of the English Poets' (1179-1781). In the book, Johnson wrote about a group of 17th-century British poets that included John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell and Henry Vaughan. He noted how the poets shared many common characteristics, especially ones of wit and elaborate style.

During the 17th century, the metaphysical poets such as John Donne, Andrew Marvell, John Cleveland, and Abraham Cowley used a literary device known as the metaphysical conceit. A metaphysical conceit is a complex, and often lofty literary device that makes a far-stretched comparison between a spiritual aspect of a person and a physical thing in the world. Quite simply, a metaphysical conceit is an extended metaphor, which can sometimes last through the entire poem. A metaphysical conceit works to connect the reader's sensory perceptions to abstract ideas. Although the conceit slowly went away after the 17th century, due to being perceived as artifice, some later poets like Emily Dickinson used it. Let's take a look at some metaphysical conceit examples from a few famous poems.

John Donne was the leader and founder of the metaphysical school of poetry. Dryden used this word at first and said that Donne “affects the metaphysics”. Among other metaphysical poets are Abraham Cowley, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Robert Herrick etc.

Subject and we can say topic of the metaphysical poetry is like, 

1)Spiritual Love & Physical Love

2)Fidelity

3)Paradox

4)Religion

5)Interconnection with Humanity

6)Death

Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry 

The group of metaphysical poets that we mentioned earlier is obviously not the only poets or philosophers or writers that deal with metaphysical questions. There are other more specific characteristics that prompted Johnson to place the 17th-century poets together. Perhaps the most common characteristic is that metaphysical poetry contained large doses of wit. In fact, although the poets

were examining serious questions about the existence of God or whether a human could possibly perceive the world, the poets were sure to ponder those questions with humor.

• Metaphysical poetry also sought to shock the reader and wake him or her up from his or her normal existence in order to question the unquestionable. The poetry often mixed ordinary speech with paradoxes and puns. The results were strange, comparing unlikely things, such as lovers to a compass or the soul to a drop of dew. These weird comparisons were called conceits.

(1) Dramatic manner and direct tone of speech is one of the main characteristics of metaphysical poetry. In the starting line of the poem “The Canonization” – there is given a dramatic starting –

“For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love”.

2) Concentration is an important quality of metaphysical poetry in general and Donne’s poetry is particular. In his all poems, the reader is held to one idea or line of argument. Donne’s poems are brief and closely woven. In “The Extasie”, the principal argument is that the function of man as a man is being worthily performed through different acts of love. He continues with the theme without digression. For instance,

“As ‘twixt two equal armies, Fate

Suspends uncertain victorie,

Our souls, (which to advance their state,

Were gone out,) hung ‘twixt her and me”

(3) An expanded epigram would be a fitting description of a metaphysical poem. Nothing is described in detail nor is any word wasted. There is a wiry strength in the style. Though the verse forms are usually simple, they are always suitable in enforcing the sense of the poem. For instance –

“Moving of th’earth brings harms and fears

Men reckon what it did and meant,

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent”.

(4) Fondness for conceits is a major character of metaphysical poetry. Donne often uses fantastic comparisons. The most striking and famous one used by Donne is the comparison of a man who travels and his beloved who stays at home to a pair of compasses in the poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” –

“If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two,

Thy soul fixt foot makes no show

To move, but doth, if th’other do”

We find another conceit in the very beginning couple of lines of “The Extasie” –

“Where like a pillow on a bed,

A pregnant bank swel’d up, …”.

(5) Wit is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry. So, here we find various allusions and images relating to practicality all areas of nature and art and learning-- to medicine, cosmology, contemporary discoveries, ancient myth, history, law and art. For instance, in “The Extasie”, Donne uses the belief of the blood containing certain spirits which acts as intermediary between soul and body –

“As our blood labours to get

Spirits, as like souls, as it can,

Because such fingers need to knit

That subtle knot, which makes us man:”

In the same poem, the Ptolemaic system of astrology is also used when he says –

“… We are

The intelligences, they the sphere”.

(6) Metaphysical Poetry is a blend of passion and thought. T. S. Elliot thinks that “passionate thinking” is the chief mark of metaphysical poetry. There is an intellectual analysis of emotion in Donne’s Poetry. Though every lyric arises out of some emotional situation, the emotion is not merely expressed, rather it is analyzed. Donne’s poem “A Valediction :

 Forbidding Mourning” proves that lovers need not mourn at parting. For instance,

“So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,

‘Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love”.

(7) Metaphysical Poetry is a fusion of passionate feelings and logical arguments. For example, in “The Canonization”, there is passion expressed through beautiful metaphors :

“Call us what you will, we are made such by love;

Call her one, me another fly,

We are tapers too, and at our own cost die,

And we in us, find the eagle and the dove”.

But at the same time, the tone of the poem is intellectual and there is plenty of complexity involved in the conceits and allusions, such as the “Phoenix riddle”.

(8) Metaphysical Poetry is the mixture of sensual and spiritual experience. This characteristic especially appears in Donne’s poetry. Poems such as “The Canonization”, “The Extasie” – even though they are not explicitly discussed, the great metaphysical question is the relation between the spirit and the senses. Often Donne speaks of the soul and of spiritual love. “The Extasie” speaks of the souls of the lovers which come out of their bodies negotiate with one another. For instance,

“And whilst our souls negotiate there,

We like sepulchral statues lay;

All day, the same our postures were,

And we said nothing, all the day”

(9) Usage of satire and irony is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry. Donne also uses this in his poems. For example, in “The Canonization”, there is subtle irony as he speaks of the favoured pursuits of people – the lust for wealth and favours.

“Take you a course, get you a place,

Observe his honour, or his Grace”.

(10) As far as Donne is concerned, the use of colloquial speech marks the metaphysical poetry. This is especially apparent in the abrupt, dramatic and conversational opening of many of his poems. For instance,

“For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love”

Or,

 “Or the King’s real, or his stamped face”

(11) Carelessness in diction is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry. These poems reacted against the cloying sweetness and harmony of the Elizabethan Poetry. They deliberately avoided conventional poetic expression.

 

They employed very prosaic words, if they were scientists or shopkeepers. Thus, we find, in their poetic works, rugged and unpoetic words. Their versification and their dictions are usually coarse and jerky.

(12) Affectation and hyperbolic expression is another character of metaphysical poetry. It is often hard to find natural grace in metaphysical writing, abounding in artificiality of thought and hyperbolic expression. The writer deemed to say ,

“something unexpected and surprising. What they wanted to sublime, they endeavored to supply by hyperbole; their amplification had no limit, they left not only reason but fancy behind them and produced combination of confused magnificence”. 

For instance, the lines of :

“Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to ayery thinness beat”.

(13) The lyrics of the metaphysical poems are very fantastic and peculiar. 

According to A. C. Word, 

“The metaphysical style is a combination of two elements, the fantastic form and style and the incongruous in matter and manner”.

Therefore, so far we discussed the salient features of metaphysical poetry, it is proved that John Donne is a great metaphysical poet. 

Conclusion :

Metaphysical poets created a new trend in history of English literature. These poems have been created in such a way that one must have enough knowledge to get the actual meaning.

Metaphysical Poets made use of everyday speech, intellectual analysis, and unique imagery. The creator of metaphysical poetry john Donne along with his followers is successful not only in that Period but also in the modern age. Metaphysical poetry takes an important place in the history of English literature for its unique versatility and it is popular among thousand of peoples till now.

Words count : 1866

References  : https://englishsummary.com/metaphysical-poetry-poets/

https://englishstudyhub.blogspot.com/2014/11/metaphysical-poetry-definition.html

Post truth

What is the Post truth ???

" A lie has speed but

  truth has endurance"

Post-truth seems to have been first used in this meaning in a 1992 essay by the late Serbian-American playwright Steve Tesich in The Nation magazine. Reflecting on the Iran-Contra scandal and the Persian Gulf War, Tesich lamented that ‘we, as a free people, have freely decided that we want to live in some post-truth world’. There is evidence of the phrase ‘post-truth’ being used before Tesich’s article, but apparently with the transparent meaning ‘after the truth was known’, and not with the new implication that truth itself has become irrelevant.

The phenomenon of “post-truth” rocketed to public attention in November 2016, when the Oxford Dictionaries named it 2016’s word of the year. After seeing a 2,000 percent spike in usage over 2015, the choice seemed obvious. Among the other contenders on the shortlist were “alt-right” and “Brexiteer,” highlighting the political context of the year’s selection. As a catch-all phrase, “post-truth” seemed to capture the times. Given the obfuscation of facts, abandonment of evidential standards in reasoning, and outright lying that marked 2016’s Brexit vote and the US presidential election, many were aghast. If Donald Trump could claim—without evidence—that if he lost the election it would be because it was rigged against him.

After the election, things only got worse. Trump claimed—again with no facts to back him up—that he had actually won the popular vote (which Hillary Clinton had taken by nearly 3 million votes), if one deducted the millions of people who had voted illegally. And he doubled down on his claim that—despite the consensus of seventeen American intelligence agencies—the Russians had not hacked the American election.2 One of his handlers seemed to embrace the chaos by arguing that “there’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts.”

Post-truth is a periodizing concept referring to a transnational, historically specific, empirically observable public anxiety about public truth claims and authority to be a legitimate public truth-teller.It also refers to the theories about the historically specific converging causes that have produced its communication forms and effects. The term garnered widespread popularity, in the form of post - truth politics , in the period around the 2016 United States presidential election  and the Brexit referendum. It was named word of the year in 2016 by the Oxford Dictionary where it is defined as "Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion  and personal belief".

After being sworn in as president on January 20, 2017, Trump offered a string of fresh falsehoods: that he had the biggest electoral victory since Reagan (he didn’t); that the crowd at his inauguration was the largest in US history (photographic evidence belies this and Washington, DC, Metro records show subway ridership down that day); that his speech at the CIA resulted in a standing ovation (he never asked the officers to sit). In early February, Trump claimed that the US murder rate was at a forty-seven-year high when in fact the Uniform Crime Report from the FBI showed it to be at a near-historic low

The Oxford Dictionaries define “post-truth” as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

 In this, they underline that the prefix “post” is meant to indicate not so much the idea that we are “past” truth in a temporal sense (as in “postwar”) but in the sense that truth has been eclipsed—that it is irrelevant. These are fighting words to many philosophers, but it is worth noting that this is much more than an academic dispute. In 2005, Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” defined as being persuaded by whether something feels true, even if it is not necessarily backed up by the facts in response to George W. Bush’s excesses in relying on his “gut” for big decisions—such as the nomination of Harriet Miers for the US Supreme Court or going to war in Iraq without adequate proof of weapons of mass destruction. When the term was coined, “truthiness” was treated as a big joke, but people aren’t laughing anymore.

Some scholars argue that post-truth has similarities with past moral, epistemic, and political debates about relativism, postmodernity, and mendacity in politics, including untruthfulness, lies, deception, and deliberate falsehood,[5] while others insist that post-truth refers to distinct historical, social, and political relations and forms especially associated with 21st century communication technologies and cultural practices.

Post-truth politics (also called post-factual politics and post-reality politics) is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy , and by the repeated assertion of talking points  to which factual rebuttals are ignored.

So is post-truth just about lying, then? Is it mere political spin? Not precisely. As presented in current debate, the word “post-truth” is irreducibly normative. It is an expression of concern by those who care about the concept of truth and feel that it is under attack. But what about those who feel that they are merely trying to tell the “other side of the story” on controversial topics? That there really is a case to be made for alternative facts? The idea of a single objective truth has never been free from controversy. Is admitting this necessarily conservative? Or liberal? Or perhaps it is a fusion, whereby largely leftwing relativist and postmodernist attacks on the idea of truth from decades ago have now simply been co-opted by right-wing political operatives.

The concept of truth in philosophy goes all the way back to Plato who warned (through Socrates) of the dangers of false claims to knowledge. Ignorance, Socrates felt, was remediable; if one is ignorant, one can be taught. The greater threat comes from those who have the hubris to think that they already know the truth, for then one might be impetuous enough to act on a falsehood. It is important at this point to give at least a minimal definition of truth. 

Perhaps the most famous is that of 

Aristotle said:

 “to say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true.” 

Naturally, philosophers have fought for centuries over whether this sort of “correspondence” view is correct, where by we judge the truth of a statement only by how well it fits reality. Other prominent conceptions of truth (coherentist, pragmatist, semantic) reflect a diversity of opinion among philosophers about the proper theory of truth, even while—as a value—there seems little dispute that truth is important.

For now, however, the question at hand is not whether we have the proper theory of truth, but how to make sense of the different ways that people subvert truth. As a first step, it is important to acknowledge that we sometimes make mistakes and say things that are untrue without meaning to do so. In that case, one is uttering a “falsehood,” as opposed to a lie, for the mistake is not intentional.

 The next step beyond this is “willful ignorance,” which is when we do not really know whether something is true, but we say it anyway, without bothering to take the time to find out whether our information is correct. In this case, we might justifiably blame the speaker for his or her laziness, for if the facts are easily available, the person who states a falsehood seems at least partially responsible for any ignorance. Next comes lying, when we tell a falsehood with intent to deceive. This is an important milestone, for we have here crossed over into attempting to deceive another person, even though we know that what we are saying is untrue. By definition, every lie has an audience. We may not feel responsible for uttering a falsehood if no one is listening or if we are sure that no one will believe it, but when our intent is to manipulate someone into believing something that we know to be untrue, we have graduated from the mere “interpretation” of facts into their falsification. 

Post-truth politics is a subset of the broader term post-truth, which has historical roots prior to the recent focus on political events. Post-truth differs from traditional contesting and falsifying of facts by relegating facts and expert opinions to be of secondary importance relative to appeal to emotion. While this has been described as a contemporary problem, some observers have described it as a long-standing part of political life that was less notable before the advent of the Internet and related social changes.As of 2018, political commentators have identified post-truth politics as ascendant in many nations, notably Australia, Brazil, China, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others. 

Conclusion : 

We can say that “post-truth” is not simply the opposite of truth, however that is defined; it is more complicated. It is better described as an omnibus term, a word for communication comprising a salmagundi or assemblage of different but interconnected phenomena.It's troubling potency in public life flows from its hybrid qualities, its combination of different elements in ways that defy expectations and confuse its recipients.Post-truth has recombinant qualities. For a start, it is a type of communication that includes old-fashioned lying, where speakers say things about themselves and their world that are at odds with impressions and convictions that they harbour in their mind’s eye. Liars attempt alchemy: when someone tells lies they wilfully say things they “know” not to be true, for effect. An example is when Donald Trump claims there was never a drought in California, or that during his inauguration the weather cleared, when actually light rain fell throughout his address.

Words count : 1640

References : https://theconversation.com/post-truth-politics-and-why-the-antidote-isnt-simply-fact-checking-and-truth-87364

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/268