The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood

by Jeremy Campbell

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

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction, Psychology, Sociology, Science

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Leonardo]

Donde Lamarck se detiene en la razonabilidad y confianza de la natura-leza, Darwin saborea sus excentricidades y desviaciones, incluso por momentos sus ridiculeces. Estaba en busca de lo marginal, de lo que funcionaba mal, para sostener su selección natural. [...] Se podría decir que la naturaleza ha obtenido placer al acumular contradicciones para poder quitar toda apoyatura a una teoría de la armonía preexistente entre los mundos internos y los externos. He aquí la quintaesencia del darwinismo. Nada de creación especial, de adaptación perfecta, de sintonía dada entre la mente y el mundo. Fueron precisamente las desarmonías las que cautivaron la imaginación de Darwin. (p.27)

Citado en Visión de Paralaje Pág.195 y lo vuelve a citar en Pág.399 (?!!)

[Gerard · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely excellent casual read for those interested in linguistic philosophy; but presented in a way that no philosophical background is required to enjoy this fascinating history of prevarication. Ray- check this one out!

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In order for us to have friends or a family that functions, in order for us to do business transactions, and (though some would question this one) in order for us to have an orderly government, truth telling has to be a fundamental baseline assumption. Sure, you can find situations where outright lying is morally justifiable, and then you can find a lot more situations where people exaggerate or otherwise stretch the truth or lie by omission in order to persuade to escape responsibility, and there will always be cheaters who lie for advantage. That's just human nature. But still we generally know the truth when we see it and we have to go through life believing that most people are telling the truth most of the time. Of course, the truth that we know as we go through our daily lives is sometimes fuzzy and may not comply with scientific or philosophic definitions of truth, but it is a practical sort of truth that allows us to trust each other and to act together for the greater benefit of us all.

This book is mostly not about the kind of truth that we need to have to get through our daily lives, but is more focused on the places where truth fails, where deception and lying are preferable, or where truth is uncertain or cannot be known. It gives us a history of philosophy focused on what different philosophical and literary schools have thought about truth telling and lying. It discusses deception in nature. It's fascinating to think about. But for all the philosophizing about truth telling and the speculations about whether truth telling is an appropriate moral value or if it should or should not be an absolute moral obligation or if truth telling is even possible, so many of these very smart people lose sight of the basic practical need to tell the truth to get through the day.

[Stephen Sorensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a history of philosophical approaches to truth and falsehood in the Western world.

The first half had me somewhat entertained but I found the second half to be more boring. Maybe some graphs or timelines or artistic representations of the information would make it more engaging. It did strike me as quite thorough. The author appears to have put a lot of work into this book. I see myself returning to it again in the future for reference.

Overall my takeaway is that it's a solid collection of knowledge but it has too much fluff and not enough meat. It uses too many words to say what could be said with fewer. However, his vocabulary contains a handful of uncommon words that I was happy to encounter.

There are typos on pages 252 (messaage) and 258 (orothodoxy).

It has endnotes and an index. There is no bibliography.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do feel like I learned more about the particular philosophers (and schools of philosophy) that engage most closely with the "truth question" from reading this monograph. However, there's a blurb on the back of this book labeling it as lucid, when I felt it was anything but. I'll admit to not having a very solid background in philosophy and am pretty sure I could have understood more of what was here if I'd read more closely/carefully. However, since I picked this up with the idea that it (or portions thereof) might be good for a first-year in college, reading too closely/carefully seemed like a poor idea. In my opinion, most first-year college students would get next to nothing from this book.

[ForestGardenGal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really saddened to have to rate this so lowly. I really wanted to like it. I tolerated the dryness of his discourse. I even kept reading while he talked around scientists and philosophers, using pieces them and playing them off each other in order to put forward his own theories, but without doing their complex theories much justice at all. However, when he stated quite plainly that autistic children were less than human due to their inability to lie, that was going too many steps too far. As Plato might say, Jeremy Campbell has not seen human-ness. He somehow seems to have deluded himself to believing that falsehood is an essential element of human Form. Disappointing.

[Lana Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copyrighted in 2001, "The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood", reads like a college textbook. Jeremy Campbell's work about philosophy and its development over time, starting in Antiquity and coming forward to the 21st century, is dense in language (slow to penetrate.) It took me a while to get into the subject. Campbell discusses the philosophers, their works, and their disagreements on the meaning of philosophy. What I think would aid the understanding of the work, is additional discussion on the issues of the day. The reader would have, I think, a better understanding of the problems that create the need for change in the philosophical theories. "The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood" is 346 pages including the front and back matter. Jeremy Campbell sums up the text on page 314. "A history of falsehood may start with the world of Darwin, with the surprisingly "natural evolution of cunning and chicanery in the animal kingdom, but it ends with the triumph of culture; of language, art, politics, social theory,...Society is not simple enough for its members to survive by always telling the truth, but one result of the decline of the concept of truth has been to make the culture more complex than ever..." I recommend "The Liar's Tale: A History of Falsehood" by Jeremy Campbell, to those who want to understand more about our world.

[Ammon Turnblom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of a slow start, and it gets a little dense toward the end, but overall, a fascinating subject tackled fairly thoroughly that left me really intrigued and introspective.

[monk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes to show God is the most Genius

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent history of philosophy through the lens of falsehood. Campbell makes a completely persuasive case for lying as primal in our DNA. Animals use protective coloration, false identities (butterflies that look like bad tasting ones), and plenty of other duplicity. We too. Ulysses, for instance, employs "metis" the Greek word for cunning, sort of street smarts willingness to dupe when necessary. Anyway, through the Greeks, through European philosophers up to and including the nut cases of post-modernism (Lacan, Derrida, etc) it's really instructive and readable.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Popular history of various philosophers that have speculated on truth and lying. Campbell starts from Darwin and the idea that falsehood or deception is relatively common in nature and then traces attitudes toward falsehood through philosophical history. The writing is quite clear and I couldn't find any particular errors in the philosophical history, but I skimmed a lot of material that was a repeat for me. The concluding chapter suggests that culture has become the more important area of debate in today's world than nature and thus deception/truth is harder to separate.

[Judith Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read for the history of philosophy and the meaning of "truth." Particularly good discussion of the emergence of post-modernism.

[Michaellang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great philosophy on truth & lies.

[Eamonn Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book which is well worth reading. And that's no lie!

[Kate Younger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primal DNA and philosophy and their role in lying. Interesting read, with a valid argument for the intense pull of our DNA.