Facing post-truth from a neo-aristotelian foundation of education

Abstract

The current challenge of post-truth that threatens the functioning of democracy, arises fromthe limits of knowledge and the interference of emotions and values. Two common schools ofthought, discourse ethics and agonist politics, fall short of resolving this challenge. In Aristotle’sunderstanding of Politics, these both elements are already present. He presents politics as a fieldof knowledge determined not only by knowledge as such, but also by the limits inherent in thatknowledge and the emotive weight.The aim of the present article is to propose a contemporary conception of a phronetic politicaldiscourse, incorporating the key characteristics of an Aristotelian understanding of phronesis.The proposed hypothesis is that such a phronetic political discourse in a contemporary contextcannot be founded on the good, as the plurality of conceptions of the good is what separatesmodern politics from Aristotelian times. Instead, and following debates in neo-Aristotelianethics, the foundation should be sought in the character development of (future) participants insaid discourse. Education is, then, the key starting point to enforce the capabilities and habits ofdiscourse participants required to best manage, as far as this is possible, the limitations of ourknowledge and our personal commitment to the political realm.