Habit of Lying

Smyth John Vignaux Smyth

Description

Lying appears to be ubiquitous, what Franz Kafka called "a universal principle"; yet, despite a number of recent books on the subject, it has been given comparatively little genuinely systematic attention by philosophers, social scientists, or even literary theorists. In The Habit of Lying John Vignaux Smyth examines three forms of falsification-lying, concealment, and fiction-and makes a strong critique of traditional approaches to each of them, and, above all, to the relations among them.With recourse to Rene Girard, Paul de Man, Theodor Adorno, Leo Strauss, and other theoreticians not usually considered together, Smyth arrives at some surprising conclusions about the connections between lying, mimesis, sacrifice, sadomasochism, and the sacred, among other central subjects. Arguing that the relation between lying and truthtelling has been characterized in the West by sharply sacrificial features, he begins with a critique of the philosophies of lying espoused by Kant and Sissela Bok, then concludes that the problem of truth and lies leads to the further problem of the relation between law and arbitrariness as well as to the relation between rationality and unanimity. Constructively criticizing the work of such philosophers as Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, and Nelson Goodman, Smyth shows how these problems occur comparably in fiction theory and how Paul de Man's definition of fiction as arbitrariness finds confirmation in analytic philosophy. Through the novels of Defoe, Stendhal, and Beckett-with topics ranging from Defoe's treatment of lies, fiction, and obscenity to Beckett's treatment of the anus and the sacred-Smyth demonstrates how these texts generalize the issues of mendacity, concealment, and sacrificial arbitrariness in Girard's sense to almost every aspect of experience, fiction theory, and cultural life. The final section of the book, taking its cue from Shakespeare, elaborates a sacrificial view of the history of fashion and dress concealment.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 18 mars 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822383741
• Langue: English

Extrait

J

The Habit of Lying

The Habit of Lying

Sacrificial Studies in

Literature, Philosophy, J and Fashion Theory

john vignaux smyth

duke university press

durham and london

2002

∫2002 Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$

Typeset in Aldus by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

appear on the last printed page of this book.

J

To Eowyn Nilson without whose love this might have died the death

And forAmy Cookwhose love showed the truth And for La cane enchaînée whose amazing love clarified everything beyond all doubt And forgregory goekjian, another Armenian who saw it all: the genocide.

J

The struggle against deceit works to the advantage of naked terror. — theodor adorno

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie. — franz kafka

Notes 195 Bibliography Index 240

Appendix: On René Girard and Paul de Man 191

7. Fashion Theory

155

i

x

Conclusion

182

233

4. Lies and Truths: Mimetic- Sacrificial Falsification in Stendhal 80

5. Fundaments and Accidents: Mimesis and Mendacity in Molloy103

2. The Analytics of Fiction

4

3

3. Lying for No Reason: Lying and Obscenity in Defoe 57

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Contents

1. The Liar as Scapegoat: Rationality and Unanimity

1

7

1

Part One. Philosophy

Part Two. Literature

J

6. The Violence of Fiction: Concealment and Sacrifice inMalone DiesandThe Unnamable127

Part Three. Fashion Theory

Acknowledgments I am exceedingly grateful to Eowyn Nilson, Jonathan Burt, and Reginald McGinnis for their sensitive readings of J various drafts of this book, to Stanley Fish for originally soliciting the manuscript at Duke University Press, and to Barbara Herrnstein Smith for her untiring support of its publication.