Aporias of Truth and Politics: Arendt, Foucault, and the Practice of Truth-Telling

In the recent debates on so-called 'post-truth politics,' Hannah Arendt's essay "Truth and Politics" is a constant reference point. Indeed, it is one of the few texts within political philosophy and political theory in which the ongoing conflict between truth and politics takes center stage. While it is usually assumed that, according to Arendt, truth and facts provide the indispensable basis for opinion formation and political action, a detailed rereading of her essay shows that the relation between truth and politics is much more complex and, in many ways, aporetic. Arendt herself and most of her interpreters attempt to solve these aporias by excluding truth from the political realm or tolerating it only at its margins. The article, by contrast, juxtaposes Arendt's figure of the truth-teller with Michel Foucault's notion of parrhēsia to argue that these aporias are key not only to an adequate understanding of the intricate truth–politics relationship but also to the critical assessment of our supposed post-truth condition.