At first, we will consider classical concepts of truth which have been largely discussed in the history of philosophy.

Our investigations of historical truth concepts will start with an epistemological analysis of Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave in the 7th book of his Politeia where Plato negotiates the need to distinguish between true intuitions and intuitions which just appear to be true. In this context we will also consult two famous interpretations of Plato’s Cave by the philosophers Martin Heidegger, who interprets Plato’s Allegory epistemologically and Hannah Arendt, who will render us a political interpretation of Plato’s truth conception. Our epistemological investigations will proceed with further readings of texts from Michel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche and Avital Ronell to highlight the problematic relation between truth, on the one side, and sex, drives and desire on the other. Finally, we will focus our considerations on contemporary interpretations of the problem of fake news and contextualize them in the light of the classical truth concepts, we have analyzed and discussed before.

Certificates are acquired through regularly attending the course and participating in class discussions (50% of grade). The students can choose to write either an essay during the semester (6 pages) on a significant aspect, we were discussing in the class, or to attend a written examination at the end of the semester on relevant issues discussed during the semester course (50% of grade).

0 - 50 % = 5 51 - 65 % = 4 66 - 77 % = 3 78 - 89 % = 2 90 - 100% = 1

Students from other faculties or universities will be given a place on the course subject to room capacities.

Literature

Arendt, Hannah: "Philosophy and Politics", in: Social Research, Vol. 57, No. 1, Spring 1990.

---. "What is Authority?", in: Between Past and Future. Six Exercises in Political Thought. Viking Press 1961, 91 - 142.

Foucault, Michel: History of Sexuality. Volume I: An Introduction. Transl. by Robert Hurley. Pantheon Books 1978.

---. “The Ethics of the Concern for Self as a Practice of Freedom.” In Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth. Ed. by Paul Rabinow. Transl. by Robert Hurley and others. The New Press 1997, 281-302.

---. “What is Critique?” In The Politics of Truth. Ed. by Sylvère Lotringer and Lysa Hochroth. Transl. by Lysa Hochroth and Catherine Porter. New York: Semiotext(e) 1997, 41-81.

---. The Courage of the Truth: The Government of Self and Others II. Lectures at the Collège de France 1983-1984. Ed. by Frederic Gros. Transl. by Graham Burchell. Palgrave Macmillan 2011.

Nietzsche, Friedrich: "On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense", in: Writings from the Early Notebooks. Cambridge University Press 2009, 253-264.

Plato: Republic. Hackett Publishing Company 2004.

Ronell, Avital: Stupidity. University of Illinois Press 2002.

---. The Test Drive. University of Illinois Press 2005.