The Concept of Organized Lying in Hannah Arendt

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the concept of modern or organized lying in the works of Hannah Arendt. Arendt perceptively highlights a particular experience of the Modern World, one in which a community might deliberately distort realities known by everybody and thus have lying as one of its political principles. This understanding of lying posits the concept on a different level from the traditional one of arcana dominationis. Our argument seeks to analytically clarify the concept, as well as to point out its relevance and link to the notion of self-institution of societies —meaning that societies are historically active collectivities.