Hannah Arendt and the post-truth era: rethinking political education

Abstract This article examines Hannah Arendt’s reflections on truth, politics, and education and argues that political education—understood as the interplay between the educational nature of the political and the political nature of education—can either lay a vital foundation for constructing a shared world in the face of post-truth challenges or become a potent tool for its destruction. For Arendt, what matters is not truth as an epistemological or ontological concept, but rather the world we build and sustain through education and the practice of politics. It is this world, rather than abstract notions of truth, that is both endangered and obscured in the age of post-truth, and therefore needs to be reconstituted. The article contends that Arendt’s insights offer valuable perspectives on how educators can help students navigate the complexities of post-truth politics, emphasizing a sustained nurturing of thinking, judgement, and plurality.