It is widely assumed that our language and theories are in principle capable of capturing the true state of reality. But many philosophers from Hume and Kant, to Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Derrida, have challenged this account of language, sometimes referred to as 'naive realism'. And increasingly scientists and neuroscientists are also abandoning ultimate truth in favour of seeing theories as models of reality. But in the new post-truth world, how are we to choose between our models, if there is no neutral perspective from which to view them?
If our language and frameworks don’t mirror reality, is it enough to see them as useful tools? Is there a fundamental paradox that if language can't capture reality, we can't know that either? And how are we to avoid an outcome where those with the greatest influence impose their perspective on the rest of us?
