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Truth and Freedom in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Philosophy and Literature
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 34, Number 2, October 2010
- pp. 381-393
- 10.1353/phl.2010.0004
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Did Orwell regard truth as a political virtue? Yes, and the case Orwell makes for truth is a subtle one. Truth, he suggests, can never be adequately theorized - hence the different and rival descriptions of truth provided in Nineteen Eighty-Four are either empty or mistaken. For Orwell, truth will always elude our theories, but it must serve as the ground and even the goal of our freedom nonetheless.