Nietzsche on Truth in Politics

Rosalyn Diprose (University of New South Wales)

This paper elaborates the connection Nietzsche makes between responsibility and honesty as a way of explaining the importance of maintaining truth in politics. The issue is framed in terms of Arendt’s seminal account of the harm done to the plurality of human existence and to political community by the ‘organised lying’ characteristic of totalitarian (totalizing) government. It may be surprising to find that Nietzsche has something to add given that, for him, perspectivity is a fundamental condition of all life, including political and ethical life. Yet he shares Arendt’s worries about the harm done to pluralism by lying. Nietzsche’s different approach to the same concerns includes distinguishing between different kinds of lying so that, for him, the organised lying Arendt refers to is actually a dogmatic form of truth. The analysis shows how Nietzsche’s political ontology allows him to value ‘honesty’ in politics without holding to either moral truth or factual truth. The chapter concludes with an account of what notion of political responsibility might be derived from Nietzsche’s perspectivism.

Rosalyn Diprose is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales. Her books include Corporeal Generosity: on Giving with Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas and (as co-ed with Jack Reynolds) Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts. Her current research includes writing a book with Ewa Ziarek on “Natality and Biopolitics”. [email protected]