From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sat May 17 2003 - 01:34:22 MDT
Lee Corbin quotes and comments:
>Mike Wiik wrote
>
>> [William Pfaff IHT in <The long reach of Leo Strauss> wrote]
>> > Leo Strauss argued that Platonic truth is too hard for people
>> > to bear, and that the classical appeal to "virtue" as the
>> > object of human endeavor is unattainable. Hence it has been
>> > necessary to tell lies to people about the nature of political
>> > reality.
>But I do *not* credit that lying is a part of Neo-con, or even
>Nazi philosophy. I simply have never heard of any ideology
>that cynical.
You've never read Plato, then, on the topic? I assume this is what Pfaff or
Strauss was referring to: in THE REPUBLIC, he famously asked whether `we
could contrive some magnificent myth that would carry conviction to our
whole community' - a lie that might serve the greater truth of community.
As I recall, this was one of Popper's reasons for despising Plato. It's a
proposition entertainingly and scathingly examined in Vonnegut's fable
CAT'S CRADLE.
Damien Broderick
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