Memory Wars and the Problem of Socio-Epistemological Relativism

The relevance of research on memory wars is indirectly reaffirmed by a growing number of scientific works on this phenomenon, while the direct proof of its significance is the fact that nowadays memory wars are evolving in a radically different context compared to those taken place in the past. Today they occur against the background of socio-epistemological relativism and post-truth and therefore acquire new qualities requiring theoretical understanding. The aim of this article is to analyze the transformations of conflictogenic public discourse in relation to the social past under the influence of socio-epistemological relativism. As this research encompasses both the interconnection between the social past and the social present and the sphere of social epistemology, the methods chosen are, on the one hand, more or less theoretically neutral phenomenological method, and, on the other hand, structural and conceptual analysis – the latter two being appropriate for the study of epistemological concepts. Based on the results obtained, the authors come to the following conclusions. Memory wars, understood from the constructivist standpoint (especially within the framework of socio-epistemological relativism), do not have any necessary connection with the historical process. They are linked only associatively. Such wars exist in the scope of an epistemologically abnormal discourse: it lacks the institute of expertise and its narratives are self-referential. Memory wars are based on the opposition between information and noninformation. Any opponent’s narrative is tagged as noninformation, it is going not to be refuted, but just not to be considered. Hence, the aim of memory wars is not to justify the truth of the narrative but to monopolize the role of the narrator. Modern memory wars differ from similar wars of past eras in that they do not create integral narratives, but remain fluid and inconsistent, because finality and consistency are not their aims: they perceive memory of the past as purely instrumental for accomplishing practical goals of today.

Keywords: memory war, post-truth, historical narrative, abnormal discourse, constructivism, socio-epistemological relativism