Abstract
This essay deals with the relationship between the represented and its represented and its representation. Point of departure is the postmodernist account of this relationship. Postmodernists tend to downplay the differences between the two and even emphasize that there should be a free transference of properties from the one to the other. They are criticized for this by positivists, empiricists and so on, who all share a robust sense of reality. However, as becomes clear in the course of this essay, we may well have our doubts about this apparently so robust sense of reality of the champions of truth and reality. This becomes clear by comparing Rousseau's and Diderot's views of the theater and of play-acting. This comparison teaches us the paradoxical truth that the more we trust representation, the more we will trust reality and truth as well. The debate between Rousseau and Diderot repeats a similar debate between Plato and Aristotle.