A pragmatic approach to teaching philosophy as a way to counter post-truth

Abstract

This article presents the creation and implementation of the Technical and Technological Product titled Educational Guide for the Use of Social Media, developed as didactic material aimed at promoting critical reflection on the use of digital media. The work also reports the results obtained in educational practice, measured using the Likert Scale, an instrument that assesses individual perceptions based on degrees of agreement with predefined aspects. The evaluation followed the criteria recommended by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) for technical production, namely adherence, impact, applicability, innovation, and complexity. Based on these, ten questions were formulated, also addressing language, new knowledge, tools, relevance, and aesthetics.In addition to this evaluation, students answered questions aimed at assessing their understanding of central concepts from the guide, such as belief, algorithms, post-truth, fake news, and denialism. The implementation of the material faced practical challenges since it had to be conducted by another teacher who, although committed to the proposal, had to adapt its execution. Furthermore, technical difficulties caused by failures in the school's power grid affected students’ digital access, resulting in the participation of 78 students. The theoretical foundation of the guide was based on authors such as Gilles Lipovetsky (2022) to understand contemporary dynamics of time and space, Pierre Lévy (1999) for their approaches to cyberspace and filter bubbles. It also drew on Peirce’s (2003) pragmatism to understand the development of belief in the virtual environment, which is shaped by filter bubbles, highlighting connections with the method of tenacity. This shows how it is often enough to hold a belief, regardless of whether it is well-founded, as long as it fulfills its purpose, namely the pursuit of well-being.