Politics and truth : political theory and the postmodernist challenge / Theresa Man Ling Lee.

By:

Lee, Theresa Man Ling

Material type: Text

TextSeries: SUNY series in political theory. Contemporary issues.Publication details: New York : State University of New York Press, �1997.Description: 1 online resource (xii, 243 pages)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

0585055831
9780585055831

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Politics and truth.DDC classification:

320/.01 21

LOC classification:

JA71 .L435 1997eb

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Introduction -- pt. 1. Historical overview: Plato: truth, nontruth, and legitimate power. Hobbes: the science of politics -- pt. 2. Contemporary conundrum: Weber: rationalization and politics. Foucault: discursive politics and the modern state. Arendt: totalitarianism and the human condition -- pt. 3. Conclusion: The politics of truth in context: the case of China. Politics, truth, and democratic practice.

Summary: The political momentum gathered by the postmodernist challenge to Enlightenment ideals has made the notion of truth more central than ever in politics. Postmodernism maintains that the philosophical validation of ideas by way of truth is intrinsically linked to the legitimation of power. In this political context Lee considers a series of related questions. Why does it matter politically how truth is validated? Does the claim to having truth necessarily imply a certain claim to authority by those who possess truth? Is truth therefore power? Is a foundationalist notion of truth antidemocratic by implication? Is a contextualist notion necessarily democratic, as the postmodernists suggest? Politics and Truth examines the treatment of these problems in the work of thinkers ranging from Plato and Hobbes to Weber, Foucault, and Arendt. The book concludes with a consideration of ideology in post-Mao China that shows the elusive if not illusory openness of contextualism.

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Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-234) and index.

Print version record.

The political momentum gathered by the postmodernist challenge to Enlightenment ideals has made the notion of truth more central than ever in politics. Postmodernism maintains that the philosophical validation of ideas by way of truth is intrinsically linked to the legitimation of power. In this political context Lee considers a series of related questions. Why does it matter politically how truth is validated? Does the claim to having truth necessarily imply a certain claim to authority by those who possess truth? Is truth therefore power? Is a foundationalist notion of truth antidemocratic by implication? Is a contextualist notion necessarily democratic, as the postmodernists suggest? Politics and Truth examines the treatment of these problems in the work of thinkers ranging from Plato and Hobbes to Weber, Foucault, and Arendt. The book concludes with a consideration of ideology in post-Mao China that shows the elusive if not illusory openness of contextualism.

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