180107 LPS Hannah Arendt: Truth and lies in politics (2019S)

Aims

The accurate and complete reading of a selected essay by the philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt should enable a well-founded understanding of her reflections on the subject of truth and politics. By teaching and practicing the basics of a sound approach to philosophical texts, problems should be understood in a text-appropriate way. Another focus is the teaching and practical application of scientific working techniques with regard to the present texts and as a basis for further study.

Content

The core of the seminar is the essay "Truth and Politics", published in English in 1967 and in German in 1969, which is again gaining in importance and relevance in view of current political and media-social phenomena such as "fake news" and "alternative facts". In it, Arendt reflects upon the distinction between rational and factual truths, between opinion and factual reality, or the power and powerlessness of truth towards politics.
Both her questions and her answers, as for the implications for human action and the political, are fundamental and current, and we will deal with them throughout the semester.

Methods

Close Reading:
Emphasis is on reading together, working very close to the text well as the discussion of individual positions and arguments.

Text based questions:
Students are to submit "question to the text" and are free to choose five text passages as an assignment for the following unit. This can be written as a question in the form of a short text commentary or directly as a question to the author and should be approximately one-half to a maximum of one page. (to be delivered on moodle, one day before the particular unit).

Expert groups:
Expert groups of four or five students are given the task of editing sections of the text and of preparing a reading proposal for the following unit (further research, clarification of unclear terms, and taking up text based questions). Based on this proposal, the expert groups lead through an entire unit and the current reading section. In the process, the lecturer make sure that the questions submitted by the colleagues are considered.