Das Ethos der Wahrheit. Zwischen Dichtung und diskursive Praktik
The ethos of truth. Between poetry and discursive practice

Summary/Abstract: The essay brings together two different approaches to the question of ethos. On the one hand it examines the phenomenon of speaking the truth or parrhesia in Foucault’s later work as a discursive praxis on which a new ethos could be founded. On the other hand, it brings Foucault’s genealogical analysis of our relation to our selves in contrast to Heidegger’s approach, in which the latter returns to one of the forgotten meanings of the word ethos, that is, of dwelling, which he encompasses in his broader analysis of a more fundamental poetic dwelling of man. This encounter between the two thinkers on the battlefield of different concepts of language came about somewhat accidentally in an attempt to confront their interpretations of Heraclitus, a figure which they both place very firmly but differently with regard to the question of ethos. Whereas for Foucault Heraclitus is an example of a sage who refuses to confront the truth of the other in a parrhesiastic encounter, for Heidegger, it is exactly Heraclitus, who provides us with a fundamental insight into the meaning of ethos and the question of truth. The analysis is even more interesting as it is based on two well know anecdotes about Heraclitus, which both Heidegger and Foucault analyze in different ways. The essay thus provides on the one hand an entryway into Foucault’s genealogical working style and offers on the other hand some key insights into Heidegger’s later thought. It is more than anything an attempt to think about ethics through the work of two post-Nietzschean thinkers, outside any form of normativity or metaphysics, with a focus on the historicity of thought.

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