Dec 15, 2007

Enlightenment and doublethink

What if the early-modern public/private split required esoteric practices? That is, one can only have a strong distinction between the public and the private if, in the interests of social stability, it is legitimate to say one thing publicly and think another privately.
The concept of hypocrisy is the harbinger of an Arendtean fracture of the public/private distinction in enlightened modernity.