ABSTRACT

In this chapter, I offer a politico-philosophical perspective to reassess the much-contested role of truth in politics that makes sense of a “right to unmanipulated factual information,” which Hannah Arendt understands as crucial for establishing freedom of opinion. My aim is to demonstrate that factual truths play a key role in politics that brings a new perspective to democratic practice by clarifying the relationship between factual truths and political judgment. The chapter is divided into three sections: the first section deals with the distinction between rational truths and factual truths, the second section takes up the question of the normativity of factual truths, and lastly, the third section turns to the relationship between validity and meaning, and the problematic status of the lie in political space.