History and the Noble Art of Lying

Abstract

Wozu Rechtsgeschichte? Wozu rechtsgeschichtliche Wissenschaft? History has been severed from both art and life durch die Forderung, daß die Historie Wissenschaft sein solle. History seeks objectivity and the historian boasts of his objective vision. But against this modern pride this article follows Nietzsche in questioning the relation between objectivity and justice. Nietzsche argues that justice demands the pursuit of truth above and beyond objectivity. True historical truth is aesthetic and not objective. To lie in the furtherance of life is the height of the historical art. In other words: to see law as power and violence and to glorify its justice all the same. That is the noble art of lying.