On Free Speech

Friendship and Humanity v.s. The Orgy of Truth Telling

in Amor Mundi (2023)

At the end of my talk introducing the Friendship and Politics conference last week, I posed a simple question: Can an Israeli and a Gazan be friends? Is it even conceivable at this point that Israelis can come to talk to and respect a Gazan who votes for and defends Hamas, a movement that for decades has sought the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, and who supports the October 7th flood of bacchanalian torture and murder that Hamas terrorists unleashed on Israeli civilians? is it at all possible that a Gazan can respect an Israeli who defends the settlements that displace Palestinians, who insists that Israel is a Jewish state, who demands security on the backs of an oppressive security state, and who has unleashed a fury of destruction that will lead inevitably to the murder of thousands and thousands of civilians?

Arendt elevates friendship over justice and truth, arguing that friendship humanizes the world more so than does the pursuit of justice. She expresses her preference for friendship over truth in a citation from Cicero who writes: "I prefer before heaven to go astray with Plato rather than to hold true views with his opponents." Given the choice between a so-called truth, a claim for justice and following one's friend, the choice is clear. But, What does this mean, to prefer to go astray with one’s friends rather than to hold true views with one’s enemies?


Addressing the Inclusion of a Talk by Marc Jongen as Part of “Crises of Democracy: Thinking in Dark Times”

in Amor Mundi (2017)

The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College would like to share our position on the recent controversy surrounding the invitation of Dr. Marc Jongen to our fall conference this past October 12–13.

As a precursor to the below, read Roger Berkowitz’s introductory framing of the conference from his opening talk titled, “The Four Prejudices Underlying Our Crises of Democracy.”


Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Free Speech

in The American Interest (2014)

There’s a natural desire to withdraw from the sheer quantity of online content floating around, but political thinking requires that we resist the desire to flee from opinions altogether.

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