ABSTRACT
Truth and social scientific explanations have normative and political implications. In contexts in which the transformation of politics into violence is more than a mere abstract and remote possibility, the politics of truth is far from being innocent. Grand narratives about the end of war have justified wars and violence. For instance, the aim of people’s wars has typically been defined, as Mao Zedong said, by a historical movement from capitalism to socialism: ‘Once man has eliminated capitalism, he will attain the era of perpetual peace, and there will be no more need for war’ (Alker et al. 1989:152). This view is based on a theory of society and a story of history as a whole. It presupposes judgements about the truth of that theory and the story. Similarly, the USA, led by Woodrow Wilson, took part in the intervention against the Soviet Union in 1918. In accordance with the Kantian liberalist theory of world politics, Wilson saw the anti-democratic Bolsheviks as a general threat to peace and security, besides rendering more difficult the defeat of Germany in the ‘war to end all wars’. Hence, in Kantian thought, wars may seem justified in terms of making the world more peaceful and orderly. Modern emancipatory projects have also confronted each other on the battlefield.
