RHETORIC: A THEORY OF POLITICAL LIE OR THE ESSENCE OF POLITICS? REFLECTIONS ON THE THOUGHT OF THE SOPHISTS, HANNAH ARENDT, AND JACQUES DERRIDA
RHETORIC: A THEORY OF POLITICAL LIE OR THE ESSENCE OF POLITICS? REFLECTIONS ON THE THOUGHT OF THE SOPHISTS, HANNAH ARENDT, AND JACQUES DERRIDA

Summary/Abstract: This paper offers an outline of practical and theoretical relations between truth and rhetoric. A point of departure for considerations to follow are philosophical theories of the sophists, Plato, and Aristotle as well as modern commentators of political rhetoric. I argue that the predominantly rhetorical nature of contemporary culture is inextricably bound up with the controversial issue of political deception, its definition and function. I refer to the theories of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida pertaining to the following issues: a relation between acting and lying, mass deception, and self–deception in totalitarian states. I further propose that classical ethics developing from Plato, Aristotle and Kant fails as a basis for the analysis of political and social processes in democratic societies. Key to grasping these processes is rhetoric – as an art of persuasion – which has nothing to do with the traditional true–false dichotomy.

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