When Michael Dukakis accused George H. W. Bush of being the "Joe
Isuzu of American Politics" during the 1988 presidential campaign,
he asserted in a particularly American tenor the near-ancient idea
that lying and politics (and perhaps advertising, too) are
inseparable, or at least intertwined. Our response to this
phenomenon, writes the renowned intellectual historian Martin Jay,
tends to vacillate--often impotently--between moral outrage and
amoral realism. In The Virtues of Mendacity, Jay resolves to avoid
this conventional framing of the debate over lying and politics by
examining what has been said in support of, and opposition to,
political lying from Plato and St. Augustine to Hannah Arendt and
Leo Strauss. Jay proceeds to show that each philosopher's argument
corresponds to a particular conception of the political realm,
which decisively shapes his or her attitude toward political
mendacity. He then applies this insight to a variety of contexts
and questions about lying and politics. Surprisingly, he concludes
by asking if lying in politics is really all that bad. The
political hypocrisy that Americans in particular periodically decry
may be, in Jay's view, the best alternative to the violence
justified by those who claim to know the truth.
General
Imprint: |
University of Virginia Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 2012 |
First published: |
February 2012 |
Authors: |
Martin Jay
|
Dimensions: |
207 x 129 x 11mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
264 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8139-3246-0 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-8139-3246-7 |
Barcode: |
9780813932460 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!