Education and authority in Hannah Arendt: a contemporary re-reading of The Crisis in Education

This article arises from a historical-documentary research with the purpose of tracking the concepts of education and authority in the work of Hannah Arendt. The results of these inquiries showed a convincing validity of his reflections, particularly regarding the field of education: his state of crisis, the shift of authority, the value of the word, the inter-generational tension, the decline of the tradition and the dangerous association with politics, are some of the concerns that can be observed in several of his writings. The purpose of the article is to carry out a theoretical approach to Arendt's thought, focusing attention on the aforementioned issues and trying to capture those original senses that place the philosopher as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. The conclusion invites to revalue Arendt's position regarding education issues; one of the terms less systematized in his work.