Can there be alternative-facts? Hannah Arendt’s answer and its political implications

Authors

  • Rafael Lembert Kasper Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18012/arf.2016.41956

Keywords:

Truth, facts, . Politics, opinion, Hannah Arendt

Abstract

This paper addresses the current discussion on “alternative-facts” and public lying focusing on Hannah Arendt’s take on the relation between truth, reality and politics. It argues that much of what is assumed as novel and unexpected in the ongoing discussion has been anticipated by Arendt in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. Furthermore, it states that her insights and categories provide a deeper understanding of the matter, thus contributing to dismiss common dead-locks in recent debate. Still, there are, in Arendt’s analysis, perplexities – explored and unexplored by her – that deserve our attention in order to grasp the nature of facts and truth. In this line, this paper answers the question put forward in its title – Can there be alternative-facts? - relying on a (Arendt inspired) defense of objective truth, which requires a specific definition of politics and some qualified ontological claims about political reality.

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Author Biography

Rafael Lembert Kasper, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Doutorado em Filosofia pelo Programa de Pós-]Graduação em Filosofia da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul com período saduíche na Freie Universität, Berlim, Alemanha.

References

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KOHN, Jerome. Hannah Arendt’s Jewish Experience: thinking, acting, judging. In: BERKOWITZ, Roger; KATZ, Jeffrey; KEENAN, Thomas (Org.). Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on ethics and politics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2010, p. 179-194 LIFTON, Robert J. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: a study of ‘brainwashing’ in China. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

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Revista Aufklärung. v.5, n. 2 (2019), Maio-Agosto

Additional Files

Published

2018-09-30

How to Cite

Kasper, R. L. (2018). Can there be alternative-facts? Hannah Arendt’s answer and its political implications. Aufklärung, 5(2), p.87–96. https://doi.org/10.18012/arf.2016.41956

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2018): Revista Aufklärung. v.5, n. 2 (2019), Maio-Agosto

Section

Articles

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