Periodic Reporting for period 1 - A Theory of Opinion (Certainty in an Uncertain World: A Philosophy of Opinion)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-07-01 do 2024-06-30
Amid the 2020 U.S. presidential elections and the popularization of conspiracy theories around Covid-19, we are living in a moment when terms such as ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’ circulate freely within the popular lexicon, with the latter named as the 2016 word of the year by Oxford Dictionary and ‘postfaktisch’ by the Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache. It is an environment where objective facts have “become less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief” (OED). In these circumstances, it is vital that scholars seek to understand not just the constituent elements of public opinion and its relationship to the public sphere, but also the philosophical grounding of subjective opinion itself as a historically specific epistemological structure of social communication.
This project will show that we have to return to the philosophical idea of public opinion to better understand the current structural transformations of the public sphere and its critical challenges for Europe’s political and discursive culture. The project proposes to re-investigate the critical philosophical tradition from G.W.F. Hegel to Jürgen Habermas and Theodor Adorno, where it is argued that there is a self-contradiction inherent in the very idea of public opinion. In a word, this Hegelian and post-Hegelian tradition provides a theory about the social function and epistemological mechanisms of public opinion that can help elucidate the current crisis of the public sphere, which seems to be overwhelmed with opinions and falsehoods and without priority for the emergence of truth through deliberation. Returning to the philosophical idea of public opinion helps us understand that current developments are not accidental, but actually rooted in essential tensions within the very idea of a modern ‘public opinion.’ According to this tradition, the social function of public opinion is to mediate between the particular individual members of civil society and the state. In order to do so, the public realm needs to bracket prejudgments about what is good and right, as well as the influence of external authority, and open up a free realm for the expression of subjective viewpoints, even accepting the publication of falsehoods. The sphere of public opinion assumes that publicly confronting these viewpoints and letting the falsehoods “devour each other”, as Hegel puts it, will let truth ultimately emerge while educating participants in the process. Through this account, the current crisis does not befall the realm of public opinion from without, but is connected to its inherent tendency to give room to opinions actively bracketing any prejudgment of their truth. If it works in the way intended, the public sphere would thereby suspend dominating external authorities, expand the freedom of subjective expression and yield a deeper form of shared legitimacy and truth. In its current state, however, it fails in all three regards: it does not allow for a truly subjective expression but merely for the display of “pseudo-individuality” (Adorno); it does not manage to let truth emerge from falsehood but remains stuck in the realm of mere opinion; and it does not manage to actually bracket external authorities. Rather, it stands under the implicit power structures of contemporary digital platforms of communication, which tend to privilege certain opinions over others. These features present problems to a public sphere that, through subjective deliberative communication and debate, ought to educate the public and produce a deeper sense of truth.
As a social philosophy of opinion, the research will proceed in three methodological steps: (i) analyse the very idea of a realm of public opinion and develop a socio-epistemological theory of its historical transformation by drawing on Hegel’s and Habermas’ theories of the bourgeois public sphere; (ii) analyse a first fundamental crisis of the public sphere in late-capitalist culture with particular attention towards Adorno’s critique of industrial culture and mass media; (iii) analyse the current crisis of the public sphere at the beginning of the twenty-first century with the proliferation of digital technologies of mass communication. The project will examine broad sociological and historical contours and determinations of public opinion as involving inherent tensions that have given rise to structural transformations and crises of the public sphere. The investigation is distinguished by the fact that it aims to integrate at once a socio-historic and an epistemological perspective: it aims to understand the social function and historical trajectory of the sphere of public opinion on the one hand, and, on the other, attempts to capture the very structure of knowing, believing and holding a point of view, produced by various contemporary iterations of the public sphere, specifically those of digital media and communication. Since current debates on this crisis have suffered from a disconnect between socio-political and the epistemological perspective, the project argues that we can only understand the significance of this crisis by integrating these two perspectives. In sum, the research will develop a social and philosophical reconstruction of ‘opinion’ characteristic of social communication today, and aims to provide vital new insight into how and why a distinctive epistemological structure of thought has become ever more pervasive in our ‘post-truth’ society.
This project will show that we have to return to the philosophical idea of public opinion to better understand the current structural transformations of the public sphere and its critical challenges for Europe’s political and discursive culture. The project proposes to re-investigate the critical philosophical tradition from G.W.F. Hegel to Jürgen Habermas and Theodor Adorno, where it is argued that there is a self-contradiction inherent in the very idea of public opinion. In a word, this Hegelian and post-Hegelian tradition provides a theory about the social function and epistemological mechanisms of public opinion that can help elucidate the current crisis of the public sphere, which seems to be overwhelmed with opinions and falsehoods and without priority for the emergence of truth through deliberation. Returning to the philosophical idea of public opinion helps us understand that current developments are not accidental, but actually rooted in essential tensions within the very idea of a modern ‘public opinion.’ According to this tradition, the social function of public opinion is to mediate between the particular individual members of civil society and the state. In order to do so, the public realm needs to bracket prejudgments about what is good and right, as well as the influence of external authority, and open up a free realm for the expression of subjective viewpoints, even accepting the publication of falsehoods. The sphere of public opinion assumes that publicly confronting these viewpoints and letting the falsehoods “devour each other”, as Hegel puts it, will let truth ultimately emerge while educating participants in the process. Through this account, the current crisis does not befall the realm of public opinion from without, but is connected to its inherent tendency to give room to opinions actively bracketing any prejudgment of their truth. If it works in the way intended, the public sphere would thereby suspend dominating external authorities, expand the freedom of subjective expression and yield a deeper form of shared legitimacy and truth. In its current state, however, it fails in all three regards: it does not allow for a truly subjective expression but merely for the display of “pseudo-individuality” (Adorno); it does not manage to let truth emerge from falsehood but remains stuck in the realm of mere opinion; and it does not manage to actually bracket external authorities. Rather, it stands under the implicit power structures of contemporary digital platforms of communication, which tend to privilege certain opinions over others. These features present problems to a public sphere that, through subjective deliberative communication and debate, ought to educate the public and produce a deeper sense of truth.
As a social philosophy of opinion, the research will proceed in three methodological steps: (i) analyse the very idea of a realm of public opinion and develop a socio-epistemological theory of its historical transformation by drawing on Hegel’s and Habermas’ theories of the bourgeois public sphere; (ii) analyse a first fundamental crisis of the public sphere in late-capitalist culture with particular attention towards Adorno’s critique of industrial culture and mass media; (iii) analyse the current crisis of the public sphere at the beginning of the twenty-first century with the proliferation of digital technologies of mass communication. The project will examine broad sociological and historical contours and determinations of public opinion as involving inherent tensions that have given rise to structural transformations and crises of the public sphere. The investigation is distinguished by the fact that it aims to integrate at once a socio-historic and an epistemological perspective: it aims to understand the social function and historical trajectory of the sphere of public opinion on the one hand, and, on the other, attempts to capture the very structure of knowing, believing and holding a point of view, produced by various contemporary iterations of the public sphere, specifically those of digital media and communication. Since current debates on this crisis have suffered from a disconnect between socio-political and the epistemological perspective, the project argues that we can only understand the significance of this crisis by integrating these two perspectives. In sum, the research will develop a social and philosophical reconstruction of ‘opinion’ characteristic of social communication today, and aims to provide vital new insight into how and why a distinctive epistemological structure of thought has become ever more pervasive in our ‘post-truth’ society.
The A THEORY OF OPINION project was successfully implemented in terms of both its scientific and training goals. The project was hosted at the University of Potsdam (Germany) at the Institut für Philosophie. During the implementation of the A THEORY OF OPINION project, the postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Eric-John Russell, provided constant updates to the supervisor — Prof. Dr. Thomas Khurana, Chair of Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Mind — on both ongoing achievements and emerging risks and issues.
In terms of scientific goals, the A THEORY OF OPINION project developed a social philosophy of opinion for the twenty-first century, that is, a theory of opinion as an epistemological structure that is both indispensable for and at the same time a threat to democratic and pluralistic societies like the EU. The research examined what comprises ‘opinion’ in today’s world of instantaneous communication. How, might it be said, does thought lapse into ‘opinion’? It is an urgent question in a time when the world, with its modes of global interconnection and digital platforms, is so heavily characterized by chaotic political debate and image proliferation. The project aimed to develop, by reinterpreting select German scholarship, a philosophical, social and critical theory of what it means to articulate and lay claims of perspective, belief and attitude within the contours of twenty-first century social communication.
The project argued that a social ontology of opinion requires two distinct levels of analysis: on the one hand, there is a macro level, whereby the broad contours and determinations of opinion are examined as inherently caught up in what Theodor W. Adorno calls the 'Halbbildung' of industrial culture and the institution of public opinion as a development of modern society. On the other hand, utilizing the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel, there is a micro level, whereby a particular epistemic structure adequate to this social situation emerges with its own patterns and forms of validation adapted to the structures of digital communication technologies. Together, these approaches comprised for the project a social and philosophical reconstruction of opinion characteristic of social communication today. The research unearthed nuanced interpretations of the work of Adorno and Hegel, as much as demonstrate how their work bears an unrecognized and in fact urgent pertinence for contemporary problems of public and private life.
The project was situated within social and philosophical context whose line of investigation incorporates the discourses of epistemology, cultural and political theory and intellectual history. By formulating a philosophy of opinion, the project aimed, in terms of its scientific goals, to provide vital new insight into how and why this distinctive epistemological structure of thought has become ever more pervasive in our ‘post-truth’ society.
The measures that maximized the project outcomes and impacts were conducted in three primary ways: through (i) an academic publication strategy, (ii) a series of academic and public events and (iii) a teaching plan. (i) The final deliverable outcome is a first draft of the book manuscript, allowing the researcher to now secure a book contract and publish the monograph, tentatively entitled Certainty in an Uncertain World: A Philosophy of Opinion. The manuscript entails three main sections (the three specific Research Objectives of the project), under which a number of chapters have been rendered into article versions successfully published in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals and a university press collected volume during the Fellowship. As distinct milestones, these articles showcase the major findings and central arguments developed during the project. Objective 1 produced an article outlining the project as a whole as it relates to the problem of the public sphere given the development of public opinion today. Objective 2 produced an article related to Hegel’s socio-epistemological theory of individual and public opinion. Objective 3 produced a book chapter related to Adorno’s sociological and philosophical writings on public opinion and ‘Halbbilding’ as a development of mass society. (ii) The researcher presented his work at academic conferences and workshops, both in Europe and internationally, centered on the fields of contemporary philosophy, social theory and political theory. One such conference, out of Université Saint-Louis, Brussels, will be publishing a collected volume of the contributions on Presses de l’Université Saint-Louis. Research output was also shared through public outreach and discussion events. The researcher also organized a number of international conferences and workshops at both the University of Potsdam and Freie Universität Berlin on the themes of forms of knowledge, the social theory of Adorno, philosophical anthropology and artificial intelligence that generated academic and public attention around the project. Contributions to the international and interdisciplinary conference held at Freie Universität Berlin on the philosophical anthropology of Adorno are currently being prepared for an edited volume under consideration by University of Chicago Press. (iii) The researcher disseminated the action results by designing a graduate-level, research-led seminar, co-taught with Prof. Dr. Thomas Khurana on the significance and function of the public sphere today, delivered to post-graduate students at the Institut für Philosophie. The researcher also helped disseminate the action results by designing a seminar at the undergraduate level at the University of Tübingen on the topic of the personification of public opinion within contemporary capitalism.
In terms of scientific goals, the A THEORY OF OPINION project developed a social philosophy of opinion for the twenty-first century, that is, a theory of opinion as an epistemological structure that is both indispensable for and at the same time a threat to democratic and pluralistic societies like the EU. The research examined what comprises ‘opinion’ in today’s world of instantaneous communication. How, might it be said, does thought lapse into ‘opinion’? It is an urgent question in a time when the world, with its modes of global interconnection and digital platforms, is so heavily characterized by chaotic political debate and image proliferation. The project aimed to develop, by reinterpreting select German scholarship, a philosophical, social and critical theory of what it means to articulate and lay claims of perspective, belief and attitude within the contours of twenty-first century social communication.
The project argued that a social ontology of opinion requires two distinct levels of analysis: on the one hand, there is a macro level, whereby the broad contours and determinations of opinion are examined as inherently caught up in what Theodor W. Adorno calls the 'Halbbildung' of industrial culture and the institution of public opinion as a development of modern society. On the other hand, utilizing the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel, there is a micro level, whereby a particular epistemic structure adequate to this social situation emerges with its own patterns and forms of validation adapted to the structures of digital communication technologies. Together, these approaches comprised for the project a social and philosophical reconstruction of opinion characteristic of social communication today. The research unearthed nuanced interpretations of the work of Adorno and Hegel, as much as demonstrate how their work bears an unrecognized and in fact urgent pertinence for contemporary problems of public and private life.
The project was situated within social and philosophical context whose line of investigation incorporates the discourses of epistemology, cultural and political theory and intellectual history. By formulating a philosophy of opinion, the project aimed, in terms of its scientific goals, to provide vital new insight into how and why this distinctive epistemological structure of thought has become ever more pervasive in our ‘post-truth’ society.
The measures that maximized the project outcomes and impacts were conducted in three primary ways: through (i) an academic publication strategy, (ii) a series of academic and public events and (iii) a teaching plan. (i) The final deliverable outcome is a first draft of the book manuscript, allowing the researcher to now secure a book contract and publish the monograph, tentatively entitled Certainty in an Uncertain World: A Philosophy of Opinion. The manuscript entails three main sections (the three specific Research Objectives of the project), under which a number of chapters have been rendered into article versions successfully published in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals and a university press collected volume during the Fellowship. As distinct milestones, these articles showcase the major findings and central arguments developed during the project. Objective 1 produced an article outlining the project as a whole as it relates to the problem of the public sphere given the development of public opinion today. Objective 2 produced an article related to Hegel’s socio-epistemological theory of individual and public opinion. Objective 3 produced a book chapter related to Adorno’s sociological and philosophical writings on public opinion and ‘Halbbilding’ as a development of mass society. (ii) The researcher presented his work at academic conferences and workshops, both in Europe and internationally, centered on the fields of contemporary philosophy, social theory and political theory. One such conference, out of Université Saint-Louis, Brussels, will be publishing a collected volume of the contributions on Presses de l’Université Saint-Louis. Research output was also shared through public outreach and discussion events. The researcher also organized a number of international conferences and workshops at both the University of Potsdam and Freie Universität Berlin on the themes of forms of knowledge, the social theory of Adorno, philosophical anthropology and artificial intelligence that generated academic and public attention around the project. Contributions to the international and interdisciplinary conference held at Freie Universität Berlin on the philosophical anthropology of Adorno are currently being prepared for an edited volume under consideration by University of Chicago Press. (iii) The researcher disseminated the action results by designing a graduate-level, research-led seminar, co-taught with Prof. Dr. Thomas Khurana on the significance and function of the public sphere today, delivered to post-graduate students at the Institut für Philosophie. The researcher also helped disseminate the action results by designing a seminar at the undergraduate level at the University of Tübingen on the topic of the personification of public opinion within contemporary capitalism.
The overall objective of A THEORY OF OPINION project was to develop a social philosophy of opinion for the twenty-first century, that is, a theory of opinion as an epistemological structure that is both indispensable for and at the same time a threat to democratic and pluralistic societies like the EU. This overall objective was achieved in and through 3 more specific objectives (Research Objectives 1, 2 and 3):
• RO1: To develop a new critical reconstruction of Hegel’s theory of public opinion and Habermas’ theory of structural transformation of the public sphere. Hegel’s theory provides us with a dialectical conception of the very idea of public opinion, while Habermas sketches how the dialectical tensions inherent in the notion of public opinion play out in a series of historical transformations. For Hegel, modes of thought that adhere to overtly subjectivistic worldviews and belief systems are chastised for failing to give their claims proper social validation and objective truth. Here, what is true is misidentified with feeling, opinion and conviction that together, in his view, set a dangerous standard for ethics, morality and the public sphere. Yet Hegel also argues that the modern age is characterized by a right of subjectivity requiring that subjective viewpoints can be openly articulated in a realm of public opinion that mediates between the particular lives of citizens and the common concerns of the state. Here the modern state inevitably faces, on the one hand, a retreat into particular interests and private points of view, and, on the other, a reactive tendency to curtail subjective freedom and relapse into forms of authoritarianism. To understand how the dialectical tension that Hegel describes plays out, the research developed a critical analysis of Habermas’ social-historical analysis of the public sphere in his seminal The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Habermas explores how a social realm of individuals able to express privately developed positions publicly has deteriorated and given rise to new power structures. Particularly important is Habermas’ attention to a) the changed media environment and b) the changed socio-economic basis of public opinion. This research objective therefore looked at the very notion of a realm of public opinion and the idea that there has been a series of historical transformations of the public sphere. A specific paper for the RO1 objective has been published in the Hegel Bulletin. An additional paper for the RO1 objective has been published in Critical Sociology. This specific objective has been fully achieved.
• RO2: To develop an account of opinion as an epistemological structure adequate to Adorno’s theory of Halbbildung. The research here explored a structural transformation of the public sphere in the early twentieth century under the emergence of late-capitalist consumer culture, specifically with a focus on Adorno’s conception of Halbbildung. For Habermas, the development of a commercial mass circulation press brought to a close the institutions of social exchange, deliberation and communication characteristic of the liberal period of the eighteenth century, gradually replaced by a mass public of cultural consumers. As this step elaborated, however, Adorno has in fact provided a deeper analysis that integrates the social and epistemological dimensions of that structural transformation more fully With the development of capitalism and its industries of mass media and communication, this portion of the research explored how the normative, institutional and economic bases of public opinion undermine the very idea of a public sphere of autonomous individuals capable of determining their own opinions. This analysis points to a fundamental crisis of the public sphere that can be elucidated with a single concept found in Adorno’s writings of the late 1950s: Halbbildung, a form of social consciousness cultivated by the spread of information and the development of economic imperatives. This form of consciousness clings to forms of industrially produced culture “as an inalienable right,” in a lauded freedom to express opinion, that is, most overtly, to like or dislike. While Adorno is here predominantly referring to television and radio, his analysis proved remarkably prescient for our contemporary situation. This second step therefore unearthed a subsequent crisis of the public sphere, understood as an extension and radicalization of Adorno’s problematic of Halbbildung. A specific paper for the RO2 objective has been written and will be published as a chapter to a collected volume by Presses de l’Université Saint-Louis on the topic of Bildung. This specific objective has been fully achieved.
• RO3: To measure the socio-historical and epistemological developments above against contemporary forms of digital communication. Synthesizing Research Objectives 1 and 2, the research here sought to employ the model of crises of the public sphere through contemporary changes in the social, economic and technological forces of public opinion. More specifically, while incorporating empirical studies on digital literacy, developed here will be both a radicalization of Adorno’s Halbbildung as well as an epistemological extrapolation of Hegel’s critique of public opinion, both characteristic of opinion in the present moment. Today’s massive changes in the socio-economic basis of opinion production and the new digital media environment suggest a new structural transformation has taken place, in which we find immediate interconnectedness without the institutional stability of deliberation and debate, a perpetually circulating forum of hyper-subjectivized opinions communicating without much accountability. Here the research sought to first employ Hegel’s notion of ‘picture-thinking’, which refers to the way in which truth is grasped through images, myths, allegory or metaphors. The research then argued that in the contemporary context of ‘picture-thinking’, opinions frequently circulate through self-images, distanced irony and malleable avatars. Expressions of easily replicable phrases, gifs, memes, images and videos together seem to encapsulate, as units of imitation and cultural transmission, a new standard of communication, specifically as the digital literacy of Halbbildung in the present moment. This framework for the processing of information and circulation of opinion highlights a contemporary crisis of social communication and the public sphere that dramatically exceeds the problems identified by Hegel, Habermas and Adorno, none of whom could have anticipated, for example, the way most typographic composition now takes place on computers and phones, utilizing software that will try and finish your sentences for you. With the increasing omnipotence of on-screen reading and writing, the ability to reflect, cultivate and articulate opinion is saturated within an environment socially and technologically hostile to such capacities. Nevertheless, the critical tools offered by Hegel, Habermas and Adorno offer crucial insight and socio-philosophical foundation with which to comprehend problems of social communication and the present crisis of public opinion. This final step therefore sought to examine the current regime of opinion by synthesizing critical ideas from Hegel, Habermas and Adorno alongside contemporary empirical literature on digital media. The research thus aimed to elucidate how socio-economic and epistemological patterns correspond to modes of subjective opinion today, reproduced through mediums of contemporary information circulation and stand as indicative of a new structural transformation of the public sphere in the twenty-first century. This specific objective was partially achieved. A draft chapter has been written and presented at a few international conferences and workshops but not yet published anywhere as an article. The chapter deals with the digital environment of online information absorption and communication and assesses its challenges to both opinion formation and human sensibilities. Although this specific objective is not yet linked to any upcoming publication aside from its place in the book manuscript, revisions are currently underway to make it suitable as an article for a peer-reviewed journal.
Despite this final partial achievement of RO3, and the further research still to be conducted to complete a draft manuscript of the book in its entirety, the overall objective proposed by the A THEORY OF OPINION project has been fully achieved (as detailed in Section 1.3 of this report). The scientific results were primarily derived from the research activities, publication of materials and dissemination.
• RO1: To develop a new critical reconstruction of Hegel’s theory of public opinion and Habermas’ theory of structural transformation of the public sphere. Hegel’s theory provides us with a dialectical conception of the very idea of public opinion, while Habermas sketches how the dialectical tensions inherent in the notion of public opinion play out in a series of historical transformations. For Hegel, modes of thought that adhere to overtly subjectivistic worldviews and belief systems are chastised for failing to give their claims proper social validation and objective truth. Here, what is true is misidentified with feeling, opinion and conviction that together, in his view, set a dangerous standard for ethics, morality and the public sphere. Yet Hegel also argues that the modern age is characterized by a right of subjectivity requiring that subjective viewpoints can be openly articulated in a realm of public opinion that mediates between the particular lives of citizens and the common concerns of the state. Here the modern state inevitably faces, on the one hand, a retreat into particular interests and private points of view, and, on the other, a reactive tendency to curtail subjective freedom and relapse into forms of authoritarianism. To understand how the dialectical tension that Hegel describes plays out, the research developed a critical analysis of Habermas’ social-historical analysis of the public sphere in his seminal The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Habermas explores how a social realm of individuals able to express privately developed positions publicly has deteriorated and given rise to new power structures. Particularly important is Habermas’ attention to a) the changed media environment and b) the changed socio-economic basis of public opinion. This research objective therefore looked at the very notion of a realm of public opinion and the idea that there has been a series of historical transformations of the public sphere. A specific paper for the RO1 objective has been published in the Hegel Bulletin. An additional paper for the RO1 objective has been published in Critical Sociology. This specific objective has been fully achieved.
• RO2: To develop an account of opinion as an epistemological structure adequate to Adorno’s theory of Halbbildung. The research here explored a structural transformation of the public sphere in the early twentieth century under the emergence of late-capitalist consumer culture, specifically with a focus on Adorno’s conception of Halbbildung. For Habermas, the development of a commercial mass circulation press brought to a close the institutions of social exchange, deliberation and communication characteristic of the liberal period of the eighteenth century, gradually replaced by a mass public of cultural consumers. As this step elaborated, however, Adorno has in fact provided a deeper analysis that integrates the social and epistemological dimensions of that structural transformation more fully With the development of capitalism and its industries of mass media and communication, this portion of the research explored how the normative, institutional and economic bases of public opinion undermine the very idea of a public sphere of autonomous individuals capable of determining their own opinions. This analysis points to a fundamental crisis of the public sphere that can be elucidated with a single concept found in Adorno’s writings of the late 1950s: Halbbildung, a form of social consciousness cultivated by the spread of information and the development of economic imperatives. This form of consciousness clings to forms of industrially produced culture “as an inalienable right,” in a lauded freedom to express opinion, that is, most overtly, to like or dislike. While Adorno is here predominantly referring to television and radio, his analysis proved remarkably prescient for our contemporary situation. This second step therefore unearthed a subsequent crisis of the public sphere, understood as an extension and radicalization of Adorno’s problematic of Halbbildung. A specific paper for the RO2 objective has been written and will be published as a chapter to a collected volume by Presses de l’Université Saint-Louis on the topic of Bildung. This specific objective has been fully achieved.
• RO3: To measure the socio-historical and epistemological developments above against contemporary forms of digital communication. Synthesizing Research Objectives 1 and 2, the research here sought to employ the model of crises of the public sphere through contemporary changes in the social, economic and technological forces of public opinion. More specifically, while incorporating empirical studies on digital literacy, developed here will be both a radicalization of Adorno’s Halbbildung as well as an epistemological extrapolation of Hegel’s critique of public opinion, both characteristic of opinion in the present moment. Today’s massive changes in the socio-economic basis of opinion production and the new digital media environment suggest a new structural transformation has taken place, in which we find immediate interconnectedness without the institutional stability of deliberation and debate, a perpetually circulating forum of hyper-subjectivized opinions communicating without much accountability. Here the research sought to first employ Hegel’s notion of ‘picture-thinking’, which refers to the way in which truth is grasped through images, myths, allegory or metaphors. The research then argued that in the contemporary context of ‘picture-thinking’, opinions frequently circulate through self-images, distanced irony and malleable avatars. Expressions of easily replicable phrases, gifs, memes, images and videos together seem to encapsulate, as units of imitation and cultural transmission, a new standard of communication, specifically as the digital literacy of Halbbildung in the present moment. This framework for the processing of information and circulation of opinion highlights a contemporary crisis of social communication and the public sphere that dramatically exceeds the problems identified by Hegel, Habermas and Adorno, none of whom could have anticipated, for example, the way most typographic composition now takes place on computers and phones, utilizing software that will try and finish your sentences for you. With the increasing omnipotence of on-screen reading and writing, the ability to reflect, cultivate and articulate opinion is saturated within an environment socially and technologically hostile to such capacities. Nevertheless, the critical tools offered by Hegel, Habermas and Adorno offer crucial insight and socio-philosophical foundation with which to comprehend problems of social communication and the present crisis of public opinion. This final step therefore sought to examine the current regime of opinion by synthesizing critical ideas from Hegel, Habermas and Adorno alongside contemporary empirical literature on digital media. The research thus aimed to elucidate how socio-economic and epistemological patterns correspond to modes of subjective opinion today, reproduced through mediums of contemporary information circulation and stand as indicative of a new structural transformation of the public sphere in the twenty-first century. This specific objective was partially achieved. A draft chapter has been written and presented at a few international conferences and workshops but not yet published anywhere as an article. The chapter deals with the digital environment of online information absorption and communication and assesses its challenges to both opinion formation and human sensibilities. Although this specific objective is not yet linked to any upcoming publication aside from its place in the book manuscript, revisions are currently underway to make it suitable as an article for a peer-reviewed journal.
Despite this final partial achievement of RO3, and the further research still to be conducted to complete a draft manuscript of the book in its entirety, the overall objective proposed by the A THEORY OF OPINION project has been fully achieved (as detailed in Section 1.3 of this report). The scientific results were primarily derived from the research activities, publication of materials and dissemination.