Edwards and the Philosophy of "As If"

John Edwards – our most inauthentic candidate… and that’s sayin’ something – often puts me in mind of Hans Vaihinger’s philosophy of “as if,” which “proposed that man willingly accept falsehoods or fictions in order to live peacefully in an irrational world,” according to the Encyclopdia Britannica.

Today, Edwards, via the “as if” world of advertising, will be responding to Bush’s Iraq speech in a truly Vaihingerian manner: The ad was taped at Edwards’ home in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the style of an Oval Office address, with him sitting at a desk and speaking straight to the camera, with American flag in the background

“As if,” indeed.