The Truth that Lies Behind the Lies (original) (raw)
Hannah Arendt and the Boundaries of the Public Sphere
The lie accompanies us, it is parasitic on the truth and indispensable in our everyday life. But how can we limit it and prevent it from destroying the truth? This question is particularly topical given the so-called "post-truth" phenomenon of fake news, conspiracy theories and populist propaganda. Arendt's analyses of the relationship between truth and lies in politics are helpful. To defend facticity, truth is indispensable, but factual truth resists limitless freedom of speech and action, or, in Arendt's words, our enlarged mentality. Imagination is the common ground for creativity, the design of another world, but also for lies. Therefore, politics and lies are structurally very close, though of course not the same. Contemporary populist movements use lies in order to undermine the credibility of other politicians and mass media. The boundaries between truth, lies, the denial of reality, invented truths as well as, for example, anti-Semitism and racism are dissolving. Conspiracy theories are the pinnacle of the loss of reality. In contrast to lies, they offer a closed parallel world in which nothing happens by accident and nothing is what it seems. Zygmunt Bauman's term retrotopia indicates that globalization and technological change are leading to growing uncertainty and a discrediting of policies, which meet with populist aims. Arendt's republicanism offers an alternative to both, populism and consumer liberalism: the defense of facts, enlightened criticism and a concept of a qualitative plurality of engaged citizens.
We have entered a ‘post-truth era’, in which, Daniel J. Boorstin notes, ‘believability’ has become an acceptable substitute for ‘truth’, and ‘manifold deceptions of our culture’ are difficult to separate from ‘its few enduring truths’. In this era, communities and individuals may feel routinely duped, cheated or betrayed. Though truth may be considered intrinsically valuable, deception may sometimes be useful or necessary. Sometimes there is pleasure in the spectacle of deception. This volume addresses a variety of areas, coming from different disciplines and methodological approaches: what unites them is the notion of deception. Deception is not just one thing: it can be used for personal liberation and expression; it can be use as a tool of state oppression and sometimes it is purely entertainment.
Linguæ & - Rivista di lingue e culture moderne, 2021
What happens when we lie? What do we lie for? Are we always aware of it? Can we define its nature once and for all? Since the beginning of history, human beings have tried to define and interpret lying according to criteria provided to them by changing cultural environments and worldviews, so to give this phenomenon a definite place in their existence. All domains of human knowledge – from mythmaking to philosophy, from theology to neuroscience, from art to linguistics – have been involved. This special issue of Linguæ & aims to contribute to this multi- and interdisciplinary discourse by proposing a common core of insights on lying through contributions from the humanities and psychology.
Performance Research, 2010
We should not ask ourselves "What is a lie?" but rather "What does a lying do, and, first of all, what does it want?" (Derrida 2002: 34) The Panel 'Duplicity / Complicity: Performing and Misperforming Lies' at PSi#15 in Croatia in July 2009 examined the half-truths, hidden assumptions and power relations embedded in every act of performance through an analysis of the way in which bodies, communities and buildings perform and misperform lies. Panelists Jelena Rajak, Bree Hadley, Rebecca Caines and Andrew Filmer presented a multi-layered analysis of performances that lie, intersecting and colliding, and at times outright lying, with each other and with commentary from Alan Read.
A new essay about lying (Published in Open Insight Volumen IV • ISSN: 2007-2406
Open Insight Volumen IV • ISSN: 2007-2406, 2013
There is a tendency to assume that, under certain circumstances, lying is morally justifiable. There are numerous logical and philosophical arguments, which claim to have objective validity, point out that a world where only truth exists would be unbearable. This brings, as a necessary consequence, the relativization of the importance of truth and its function of being the pillar mode of the moral principle of honesty, turning truthful discourse into a tool, as usable as lying for pragmatic matters that are sometimes disguised as moral. Frankly in disagreement with such positions, this essay aims to present a detailed counter argument, claiming that lying is always immoral.
The Art of Lying, 2025
The Art of Lying is an interdisciplinary exploration of deception as a structural and symbolic phenomenon permeating all domains of human life. Drawing on philosophy, psychology, history, politics, religion, art, and the natural sciences, the essay examines lies not as mere ethical failings, but as cognitive strategies, social devices, and cultural constructs. From ancient myth to digital disinformation, from self-deception to state propaganda, the book dissects the manifold forms and functions of falsehood. It questions the binary of truth and lies, and instead proposes a complex phenomenology of the false—one that reveals how lying both distorts and constructs our perception of reality. Written in a modular structure, the essay invites critical reflection on the epistemic, aesthetic, and existential implications of deception in contemporary society.
Journal of the American Musicological Society, 2014
Introduction 543 JENNIFER RONYAK The Lied from the Inside Out 549 BENJAMIN BINDER
In my essay I argue that lying and deception have often been treated in isolation, only from the point of view of their moral and ethical dimension. Lying, however, is part of the life of society, of the community, and it should be judged as such. I analyse the concepts of lying, deception, spins and half-truths, as defined by Thomas L. Carson. Metaphors are studied from the point of view of their truth-value. Carson's approach is compared to that of Friedrich Nietzsche, and further, the moral dimension of lying is also be included in my work.