GRK 728:  Cultures of Mendacity

• Subject Area: Linguistics
• Term: from 2001 to 2004
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273349

Mendacity is an original phenomenon of the individual an societal establishment. Indeed, it goes back to the common genetic make-up of humans and animals. For a long time, it was almost exclusively perceived as a moral phenomenon - and was rejected. More recently mendacity has also been evaluated in a non-moral context, which does not detract from either its universal importance or its continuous self-deception. The deterioration of generally binding conceptions of meaning, the diversification of our world into various, interacting cultures and subcultures, and a highly topical worsening of deceptive practices in politics and economics raise the question of the effects of mendacity with respect to the stabilization of groups or societies on the one hand and the individual and social subversiveness on the other. The title of this research project proclaims the cultural appropriateness of mendacity. Its plural form implies that discussions should particularly be conducted as an interdisciplinary dialog. Topics are: theories of mendacity, daily worlds of lying, political cultures of lying, mendacity and the media, and the esthetic of lying.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität Regensburg
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Jochen Mecke
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Roswitha Fischer; Professor Dr. Rainer Hammwöhner; Professor Dr. Robert Hettlage; Professor Dr. Walter Koschmal; Professor Dr. Helmut Lukesch; Professor Dr. Mathias Mayer; Professor Dr. Jochen Mecke; Professor Dr. Hans Rott; Professor Dr. Herbert Schlögel; Professor Dr. Friedrich-Christian Schroeder