Hannah Arendt on Proper Education for Politics

Abstract

This paper examines the writings of one of the most influential political philosophers of our time Hannah Arendt. It focuses especially on her views regarding “The Crisis in Education”, where she asserts that “education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token save it from that ruin which, except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and young, would be inevitable. Hannah Arendt’s work points towards how we can fall short in our responsibility for, and love of, the world, and for that, education can become complicit in the erosion of a vibrant and robust public realm, the realm of politics. So education should aim at preparing the child for this challenge. In this regard, Arendt’s work takes on a prophetic character, because it denounces a process of alienation in respect to a world that is still ongoing in the field of education.