Examining hate speech from the perspective of Arendt’s political theory

Abstract

This paper intends to contribute debate on hate speech from the perspective of political theory derived from Hannah Arendt’s theoretical works. Although Arendt does not deal with hate speech head-on, her theory has been selected for this study partly due to the strong emphasis on speech as a precondition for being a part of public life and political being. This study argues that although Arendt would have certain reservations about the restriction of hate speech, her conceptual framework gives us clues about what is wrong with hate speech and at least displays a minimal philosophical criticism of hate speech.