The human being is existentially dependent on truth. Finding out the truth requires the recognition of ethical rules (of dialogue). Power is grounded on and aims for inequality. There is an inevitable tension and a tendency towards mutual subversion between power and the search for truth. It is shown why a non-argumentative search for truth (for example, in the form of religious belief) is dependent on power and why the egalitarian postulates of the ethics of dialogue lead to a political economy compatible with them.

Reinhard Hesse is Professor for Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Pedagogy, Freiburg (Germany)