Hannah Arendt and the Promise of Democratic Education. Exercises in Educational Thought

Hannah Arendt, one of the most influential political thinkers of the 20th century, devoted much of her work to understanding how people can think and act meaningfully in moments of profound crisis. She famously described these periods as “dark times,” when truth is obscured, public trust erodes, and the shared world that binds us together seems to be under threat.

This doctoral thesis, situated in the field of philosophy of education, seeks to reclaim the idea of democratic education by drawing on Arendt’s distinction between politics and education. It focuses on three key Arendtian concepts – friendship, collective responsibility, and civility – and examines what they can mean for education in our time.

Through three interconnected studies, the dissertation follows Arendt’s approach of “exercises in thought”: inquiries that do not offer ready-made solutions but instead aim to advance our understanding of the current crisis of democracy and the role that education can play in it.

The work forms part of the four-year DEMOPOL research project, funded by the KONE Foundation.