NEW YORKER0 REEL ECTIONS HE subject of these rections the antithesis of truth and polite, a commonplace. No one has ever doubted chit trth and police fe on rather. bad tert with each other, and no one, as far as kno hae ver counted wutbfulnes among’ the politcal vieue. Lies have always brent regarded as necesary and justifiable toate act only oF the poician's or the dlemagng’s bur also Of the sataman’s trade. Whv i that so? And whae does it mean for the nature and the dignity of the politcal realm, on the one se, and for the nature andthe dignity of truth and truthfulnes on the other? Te of the very esence of truth to he impotent and of power to be deceitful? And what Kid of realty doc truth possi iis powerles in the public realm, which fore than anyother sere of haan life guarantees realty nf exitence to natal and mortal men—that Tings who know they have appeared ‘out nf non-being and wil, after» short While, gain disappear into? Finally, isnot impotent qrth just as despicable ss power that gives no heed to tuth? “These are uncomfortale questions but they ance necessarily cut of ou cutrent ‘convictions in this matter. ‘What lends this commonplace thigh plausibiey can sill be sumed up in the old Latin adage “Pict ite, ferent miondus™ ("Let justice be done fand let che world por?) Apart fom 5s probable author in the ssteenth century (Ferdinand. I, succewor 10 (Charles V), no-one hae used it except 5.4 shetonial question: Should justice bbe done if the world’s survival & at stake? ‘The only great thinker who dared to go nezinat the grain of the (gueson ves Tmmanuct ‘Kant, who Boldly explained that the “proverbial saying means jn simple language "Fustce shall preva, even though all the racale inthe world should persh 84 result” Since men would not Find it worthwhile to live in a. world utterly deprived of juste, this “human right must be held sired, regardles ‘of how much sacrifice required of the overs that be. regardless of shat Imight be the “yseal consequences thereof” Bur in this answer absurd Doesn't the care for exinence clearly precede everyting else—every virtue and every principle? Is it not obvious ‘ha they become mere chimeras i the World, where alone they can be mani- ested, is in jeopardy? Wasnt the sex- fenteenth century right when it almost TRUTH AND POLITICS susanimoaly declared that every com= rmonweakth was duty Bound to recog nize, in Spinoza’s words, “no. higher Jaw’ than the safety of [is] own realm?” Bor sutly every principe that transcends sheer enstence can be put in the place of justice andi we pt truth in ts place—"Fla_ceritey, ferent ‘munidus”—the ald saying sounds even ‘more plausible, Tf we understand po- lial von in toms of the meansend category, we may even come tthe anly Semingly parsdesiel conchision that Tying ean very well serve to estalkh or safeguard the conditions forthe search fcr wuth—as Hobbes, whose relent- Tes logic never fist carry arguments to thse extremes where thee absurdity becomes obvious, pointed out long age. ‘And lies since they are often used as tubitetes for more vnlent means, are ape to be considered relatively harm Tes tools in the arsnal of plea ‘To anyone reconsidering the old Latin saying, i wil therefore come as somthing ofa surprise that che scree ‘of cruth for the survival of the word ‘would be more fle than the sscrifce of any other principle oF vtec, For While we may refuse even to ask oue= ‘elves whether fife would sl e worth living in 2 world deprived of such no= Honest justice and freedom, the sme, carious, i not pose with respect 0 the semningly a0 much les politcal iden ‘of truth, What at stake survival, the persverance in existence (ir eu ‘ite rieverare),and no hutwan world, Aktned tn outa the short life span of mortals within i, wil ever be able to Survive without men willing todo what Hrerodotus was the fist to undertake consiousy-—namily, legen te conta, to say what is. No permanence, no perseverance in extenee, ean even be Sonccived of without men wing ¥ tes to what in and appears to them cane ti “The story of the confi Between teuth and plist a old and compl tated one snd nehing would be gained by simplifention or moral denuneaton. Throughout hiner, the tnahecckers and srubliers have evn ate of the aks of ther business at long as they i ot itrfere wth the cou ofthe sworld they were covered with sided, Ite whe freed his flercitiens to take him serous by trying to st tern fs frm fchood an dluson ws in danger of bis Iie: “TE they cold ly hands on [vuch a] man. hey would ill him” Plato wy inthe last ene tence of the cave allegey. ‘The. Plc tonic confi between trubeller and Ghzens cannot he explained by he LecGiodapeae ny ol Oe ler ie cis that splicily oFexplcily, juaiy Tying, among other rangresons che sivtal ofthe world i at wake, No tnemy is mentioned in. Pas sory the many lve peacefully in het eae among themsclves, mere spectator of {cna invelved in wo action and hence threatened by nobody The members of ‘his community have no reson shat vert raed srth and trathtlos as their worst enemies, and. Pato offers $0 explanation of thir pervere Tove of deccpton and acho, Tt we could enone im with one of biter coe Hesgus in pltal phioophy—narme- Ips with Hees, who held that only “ch erath a oppesct no man's prot 4g noe plese, wall men welcome (Gn obvious satment, which, we ver he thght important eng to ten hie “Leviathan” wih)—he might Sere about prof and pleasure but Bot arth dhe amerion chat there ext any Kind of truth weeeme to all men Hott, but not Plats, consled kins sxlf with the exitence of indifrent truth, with “eject” abot eich Sine care ote with matherte ich thy, "the dsr of lin nd fi tres" tha “eres no man’s ambition, profit or lost.” For, Hohies wets Aout ot, but HE had been thing contrary to any mans ight of dame $n orto the ret of men that ate dminion, thatthe thee angle of 3 trang should be equal to two ane as of a agnce that doctrine sould fave been if not diputed yee by th Burning ofall hooks of gsoetty, ope prose, as far athe whore concrened wes able.” TNo doubt thee i a dociive dit50 ference hetween Holes! mathematical axiom and the true sandard for human fondue that Plato's philosopher supposed to bring back fronn his joure ney unto the sky of ideas, although Plato, who believed that mathemati truth opened he eyes of the mind 0 all eruths, as nor swate of i, Hobe? txample series us 35 relatively harm= Tess; we ate inclined to assume that the human mind ill always be able to repeedvce soch axiomatic Hatements 3s ‘the three angles of + triangle Should be equal to two angles uf a square,” and. we conclude that “the burning of all hooks of geometry” ‘would not he radially effective. ‘The anger would be considerably greater with pect to scien. statment; hha history taken sifferent turn, the Whole modern. scenic. development from Galles to Einstein might not have come to pas And certainly the most vulnerable truth of this Kind would he those highly differentiated and always unigue thought tins—of Which Plato's doctrine of ideas i an ezainent example whereby men, since time immemorial, have tried to think rationally Beyond’ che limits of human Kunde, Tm the medern age, which believes that wth & nether given to nor die closed to but produced by the buthan ‘mind, Leibniz saigned mathemati, ‘ienifc, and philesopical wuts to the Common species of rational truths die tinguished from facta! truth. T shall tse this distinction for conveniences fake without’ discusing is intrinse legitimacy. Wanting to find out what injury. poldeal power is capable of inctng. upon truth, we Tok into these matters for pica rather than philosophical feasns, and hence ean afford to dregard the quesion of what qruth Sand he eanent to take the word inthe sense in which men commonly understand jt, And if we now think of fectual teuthe—of such modest veritcs 36 the role during the Russian Revel of aman by the mame of Trotdy, who Sppears an none of the Soviet” Rue ‘lan history boaks-—we at once become zvware uf how much more vulnerable they are chan all the kinds of rational truth taken together. Moreaser, since fgets and events the invariable otte come uf men ving and acting togeth= e—consitute Whe very texture of the polieal realm, i i of course, factual truch that we are most conceened with here, Dominion (t0 sak Hotes lane usage) whem ft attacks rational truth fverstps a were ts domain, while Jc gives hate us i ground when fe fables or Fes away facts. The ‘chances of factual trth's surviving the tnslaughe of gower are very slim in sleds it always in danger of being rmancuvered ott af the word nor only for a time hut, potentially, forever. Facts and evenis are infinitely more fragile things than axioms, dcovers, thoores—even the mise wily spect lative ones—produced bythe human minds they eccur in the field of the feverschanging aflsiy of men, in whose fiux there & nothing more permanent than the admvitedly relative. perma rence of the human mind's sucture, Once they are last nn rational effort vill ever bring them backs Perhaps the chances that Euclidean mathematics of Einsteia’s theory of elativgy—et alone Plato's philsepty-—vwould have been reproduced in time if their authors had heen prevented from handing them downto posterity are_not very good sither; yet they are infinely better than the chances that a foct of iam portance, forgotten or, more likely, bed away, will one day be redseosered THOUGH the polly. mast reevane truth ave facta, the Confit heen truth nd pi ee fie dhcoered and artaed wi rope to rational tra ‘The epee of eranaly tee stement eae tree and ignorance, sin the sence or ison ad epic, an pop Delbert nou, he pany Hays its role only in the domain of ted tetas nga tater edd that in te‘long debate ‘Bout ths ancagonin oF rath an pol ey fret Pato vo Hebe no te, aprey, cree beloved that onpunized ing, a We now ie toayy could Boom nda wap pgeratnrds Dn Pie the tute in danger of hs li, and in Hh hese be ew bow ome an author he is thestened th fa Reiget iki) neem Sy ours tne, It nthe wpe and the jgnrames ert te Far ho cccupy Paes though and whee he aingues betwen ror and Be Shar between “lpalneary and woe Sar ficudo—he i charter fal ech Earp oes fag with nore” than on ars Teh Benne egnied ingy dene nating the pi ein, gd from the pvt ar wh tee ek on h.orn ok, wo elton Or has the sing to do wah the seking free thar ace fr Zora Shiai ofthe sar lige ae lide Wingo ech i ei exon of grav aha? Only with the He af FEBRUARY 25,1967 Pura moral, coinciding with the tae of organized scence, whose prom te had to Be sured one fits {ground ofthe ale verchy and fe= Ted of sey sci, were ls one tiered sero offence However tha maybe hiricaly the canfct between truth and pos aos out of tro damtrkaly oped rays of He Me af the pve Bier, itespetd fs by Parte nd then by Ply and the ay of He A the einen, To the ize” ever Changing opinions shoe lnman afai, which thames wore in a sete of Consant fu, the phlsopher eppned the th show shaw ngs whch in ther very nature were eversting and fron whch, therefor, princes could be darted to save human aftr Hence the poste so euth was mere opinion, whch was equated. wa Ute Sin, and war the degrading of pion shat. gave the conc pr cal poignaney fore, and tt teh, belongs among the indigesie preteguises ofall per, “Al govern tens rest on epinion fates Madion ‘a, and noe even the tote arate tues or tyra could eve et per, IEtalone hep witout he upper of thee who ae Bkeminded, By the sie token, every lim fn te sphere of Human afin to an abslte truth, toe ally needs sport fro the eof pion, sre the very ‘ow ofl pr and ll government This anagonion Dever th and pinion 8 fre intra fy Plao (esecally ithe "Gorgas") ax the snags Beven cmmoatg fn the form uf *dalogue which he equate speech for peopel rth, fn inthe form of “tte” by which the demageguc ax we wuld sty day, prrmada te mulénde "Traces of thi original conte can sell be found in the earksr sages of the medeen age, though bard nthe trol we line i In bes, for in Fancy, we ll read of an eppson of {wo Neonray Tae lid re Soning" 2nd power eloquees the former being "grounded epon prince ples of truth ake other open pions andthe pasion and ieregs of incm which ate difeeatand maable” Moe than a century Ler nthe Age oC Enlightenment ha res ave tno bat nt ike. dlppeared and wire the ance antagerton slo ives the capa hs sed tres af premodern philly, Losing’. tuagicent“Jeder ge’ sem doe Wairhct dink, und de Wobrbee sll i Gat enapfotew” ("Let ach tan say wha sree co hi eu, aed