The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood [Paperback]

Jeremy Campbell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2002

"A book too disturbing to be ignored."—Booklist, boxed review

Lies are often so subtle, so deftly woven into easily acceptable truths, that we can fail to recognize them. Turning Sisela Bok's defense of truth in her book Lying on its head, Jeremy Campbell argues that deception should no longer be seen as artificial or deviant, but as a natural part of our world. Beginning with a study of evolutionary biology and the necessity (and ultimate value) of deceit in the animal kingdom, Campbell asks the difficult question of whether falsehood might, in fact, be instinctual. Guiding the reader through classical philosophy to more contemporary thinkers such as Freud and Nietzsche, Campbell links a multitude of disciplines and ideas in lucid and engaging prose. Unsettling some of our most firmly held beliefs about truth and ethics, The Liar's Tale is a riveting work of intellectual history. "This challenging romp through the underbelly of intellectual history...is fascinating and troublesome."—New York Times Book Review "[A] beautifully written book....a crisp and remarkably readable discussion."—John Frohnmayer, The Wilson Quarterly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite its subtitle, the book is less a history of falsehood than of the concept of truth, with falsehood as an important corollary. Campbell's treatise suffers from a weak introduction that fails to set forth its plan, and from an unconvincing first two chapters on Darwin and the theme of nature as liar. After that, a methodical and enlightening march from antiquity to the present begins, analyzing notions of truth from pre-Socratics to postmodernists. The ancient Greek concept of the Logos, which guaranteed a fit between the human mind and the order of the universe, is effectively contrasted with the Sophists' denial of a "natural fit between mind, language, and reality." Though the chapter on medieval thought is inadequate, Campbell handles modern thinkers gracefully, following rival theories of truth from Descartes, Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche to Freud, Moore, Russell, Saussure and Wittgenstein. The last few chapters spotlight postmodern thinkers (notably Barthes, Derrida, Foucault and Rorty) who have dismissed the distinction between truth and falsehood, promoting values such as pleasure and imagination while fostering the idea that "truth as well as falsehood are as dead as God." Campbell seems ambivalent toward the alleged death of truth: he appears equally unsatisfied by philosophical attempts to defend truth and with today's "almost unprecedented tolerance of falsehood." It would have been nice if Campbell had made his own position clearer. Even so, the book is a valuable account of how truth and falsehood got where they are today. (Aug.)Forecast: While the back of the galley promises that this book "turns Sissela Bok's Lying" the classic walk-through on a variety of moral quandaries "on its head," don't look for that book's displacement from the shelf. As a pointedly historical text, this book won't capture the imaginations of everyday readers (and liars), but may sell slowly and steadily as a solid popular account of some difficult thinkers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Perhaps George Washington couldn't do it, but millions of lesser mortals now find it quite easy. Lying, that is. For Campbell, the modern world's astounding appetite for untruth demands an explanation. And it is no simple tale. In probing the history of prevarication, Campbell excavates the very foundations of philosophy and science to uncover the justifications for abandoning veracity. Radical skepticism here emerges as the great legitimator of falsehood, the corrosive enemy of truth. For if the human mind never really grasps truth, why censure the liar, who at least recognizes the illusions in his fictions? This genealogy of doubt gives us perceptive portraits of predictable figures, such as Ockham, Nietzsche, and Freud. But it is Darwin who looms surprisingly large, quietly subverting philosophy and logic with his dark suspicions as to how natural selection has primed the mind with strategies for deceit. But more than a few other modern intellectuals have joined Darwin in making our age sympathetic to deceivers: aesthetes have exempted art from all tests of veracity; ideologues have rationalized any fiction that advanced their cause; radical literary theorists have leeched all stable meaning out of canonical texts. Why tell the truth when deception can serve so many purposes? A book too disturbing to be ignored. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393323617
• ISBN-13: 978-0393323610
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #918,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative., September 10, 2001

By 

"gmwerner" (VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood (Hardcover)

This is a very enjoyable read. Jeremy Campbell gives us a light, but well-informed, history of western philosophy. He chronicles the search for truth that has persevered throughout the ages, while demonstrating that the human animal has been employing deception (both intentionally and unintentionally) for just as long.

The story begins with the early Greek sophists, who correctly intuited that truth in language can be highly malleable. Plato's subsequent Idealism, and much of the western philosophic tradition, was a vain effort to ground and locate absolute truth within the context of language. Campbell's story comes full circle with Wittgenstein's description of the language-game, in which it is recognized that "absolute truth" cannot be located within the imperfect convention of language.

Campbell's story is filled with entertaining anecdotes, such as the elderly Kant's "white lie", in apparent conflict with his categorical imperative. Campbell eventually arrives at the modern deconstructionists (Derrida, Foucault, and followers), who take Wittgenstein's insight (no "objective", or "absolute" truth within language) and try to disingenuously derive from it the conclusion that all standards of veracity (rules of the language game) are chimera, and, therefore, anything goes, and each individual's interpretation of a single narrative is singularly valid and cannot be evaluated against another's.

Campbell exposes the intellectual bankruptcy of these modern Liars, and even makes reference to Alan Sokal's ploy in the journal Social Text, in which it was demonstrated that, although the journal's editors were, themselves, habitual Liars, they were incapable of discerning Mr. Sokal's blatant, but brilliant, Lies. (I highly recommend Sokal's book, Fashionable Nonsense. No one could possibly undress and expose intellectual charlatanism in a more entertaining or satisfying fashion than Sokal did, through his first essay (the hoax), the second essay (exposure of the hoax), and the book. Stanley Fish- are you out there?)

Anyway, Mr. Campbell gives an excellent tour of the western philosophic tradition, with a unique emphasis on the role of deception throughout human history and culture.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So you think telling the truth boils down to a simple rule?, December 3, 2001

By 

F. Malmstrom (Monument, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood (Hardcover)

I loved this book. Thankfully it's also quite serious and clearly written. If you think telling the truth is simple, reconsider. Campbell's book takes us through 2,500 years of analysis of a seemingly simple problem, beginning of course with the ancient Greeks and ending on today's scientist's bench. Much of the identification of the human concept of truth doesn't necessarily begin with Free Will but lies both in the natural structure of language and evolution. I was surprised to find how near 19th Century German philosophers came to identifying present day evolutionary psychology.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Meaningful Lies, August 12, 2001

By 

Adam Christing (La Mirada, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood (Hardcover)

First off, the title of this book, THE LIAR'S TALE, is a lie!

Maybe this "cover lie" was intentional on Jeremy Campbell's part (more likely it was the marketing director at Norton publishing who realized that a book entitled THE LIAR'S TALE would move more copies than a book called THE HUMAN HUNT FOR TRUTHFUL MEANING). If it was a purposeful lie, it is consistent with Campbell's core thesis: we human beings are far more concerned with finding and creating meaning for ourselves than we are in discovering factual truth.

This book WILL challenge your thinking and stretch your vocabulary. But know this--it's actually a book about philosophy and philosophers. That's a good thing. That's a rare thing these days. Richard Tarnas does it bigger and better in his book PASSION OF THE WESTERN MIND. Tarnas attempts more and achieves more with his work.

Campbell, though less ambitious, succeeds too. He focuses on language as much as ideas. If you are wanting to read a meaningful book about meaning, you'll mean to read this book. I'm not trying to be mean to you. I just know what this book could mean for you. Know what I mean?