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

Abstract

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