Certainty in an Uncertain World

Toward A Critical Theory of Opinion

Bibliographic Data

ID2371102
AuthorsE John Russell (0000-0001-9437-0747, University of Potsdam, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume50
Issue4-5
Pages691-706
Publication date2024-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/08969205231214806
OpenAlexW4389310605
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited36

Terms such as 'fake news' and 'post-truth' circulate freely today within the popular lexicon. It is an environment where objective facts have 'become less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief' (OED). Central here is to understand the conceptual grounding of subjective opinion as a historically specific epistemological structure of social communication. My paper will draw on the Hegelian tradition of critical theory that has in unique ways unified an analysis of the nexus between socio-economic structures and epistemological frameworks. Here I name opinion as a historically specific epistemological structure of self-certainty, which receives validation within what Adorno called the Halbbildung of industrial culture, a form of social consciousness cultivated by the spread of information and economic imperative. It will be argued that the concept of opinion becomes a vital question for understanding, in this 'post-truth' landscape, current standards of instantaneous communication and cultural transmission

Certainty · Consciousness · Epistemology · Lexicon · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Sociology · Computer Science · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Digital Education and Society · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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