Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

SUBSCRIBE NOW

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit Subscriptions.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Short Story

Affairs of Heart & Affairs of State

Philosophers have a problem with truth; but what about truth-telling? Peter Cave publishes some correspondence, recently re-discovered, concerning a long-forgotten political scandal. For the sake of brevity, incidental material in the letters has been excluded. Now, how do you tell people that you are telling them the truth?

Dear Prime Minister,

This is an extremely difficult letter for me to write...

As well as being one of my closest political friends, you head a government that has radically improved our great nation’s welfare – a government that I hold in the highest regard. Imagine my distress and embarrassment, therefore, at a sordid scandal that is about to hit the headlines.

…