Abstract

The thesis of this paper is that truth in politics is intersubjectively constituted within a set of relationships irreducible to the oppositions of truth and falsehood or veracity and lying. First, I examine the link between factual truth and politics, and argue that this sort of truth pervades our experience and tends to become background knowledge. Second, I propose a reading of Plato’s Apology according to which the truth in politics is grounded on an intersubjective normative and epistemological horizon, which is vicariously communicated as gesture. Third, in relation to Plato’s Republic and Gorgias, I inquire about the semantic connections between fiction and lie and assert that the expression of the truth in politics requires a poetic endeavor, which blurs the lines separating veracity and lying. Finally, based on Agamben’s interpretation of Plato’s Hippias Minor, I conclude that the institution of the truth in politics requires diverse expressive and interpretive capacities.