Max Archer
Protagoras (178) says the natural tendency for human beings is to create communities that enable collective protection against threats. The missing piece in such arrangements was lack of political knowledge, or Politikē Technē, humans had when they formed the city-state. Lack of education about how to be just and respectful to others thus required a connection be made between the polis and technē in order for the city to survive.
Politikē technē can be broken down into separate terms or translated to English when excavating its ancient meaning (Wallach 2001). Politikē is meant to entail a more systematic conception of political skill while technē is the Greek word for practice, in this case, practice of civic affairs. Together, the English equivalent would be “political art,” or “political skill.” Socrates saw it as a civic art to be fostered through the dialectic, philosophy imparted initially by Zeus to the Athenians (Anderson 1995). Ancient usages of the concept around the Fourth Century B.C. reflected a sense of patriotism; Athenians were so proud of the polis they built, where citizens were viewed as equally skilled in their capacity for politics, that they elevated their notion of politikē technē to be seen as superior to all other cultures and peoples (Galpin 1984).
Modern deployment of the concept has maintained the assumption that political skill is a worldview that needs to be taught. Contemporary theories have taken from Protagoras the beliefs that the more skillful political speaker can dominate others and that effective deliberation requires this political skill (Yunis p. 98). This has led some to question the efficacy of existing political systems, as politicians now follow these rules as justification for keeping politics in its current business-as-usual design. Elitism has moved the concept of politikē technē away from its classical meaning to a more hegemonic form where political decisions are to be made by supposedly objective and benign experts (Cockshott & Cottrell 1993). Because Protagoras’ approach has been adopted as the rules to govern deliberation, ordinary people are now left out under the assumption they are not taught the unique expertise for political judgment.
References
Anderson, A. (1995). Why Prometheus Suffers: Technology and the Ecological Crisis.
Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 1 (1-2).
Cockshott, W. & P. Cottrell. (1993). Towards a New Socialism. Accessed 5 March 2008
at http://www.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/new_socialism.pdf.
Galpin, T. (1983-1984). The Democratic Roots of Athenian Imperialism in the Fifth
Century B.C. The Classical Journal, 79, 100-109.
Wallach, J. (2001). The Platonic Political Art: A Study of Critical Reason and
Democracy. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Yunis, H. (1996). Taming Democracy: Models of Political Rhetoric in Classical Athens. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
2 comments:
Max brings up important points when considering how the rhetorical classroom should function. Education is seen as a way of creating good citizens, but if the way to be a good citizen is through domination many will be excluded. Jarrett outlines a classroom in which students "locate personal experience in historical and social context-courses which lead students to see how differences emerging from their texts and discussions have more to do with their contexts then they do with an essential and unarguable individuality" (Jarrett 116). Building on Hook's pedagogical goals the classroom should be a place of empowerment based on contextual truths, not absolutist Truths. As Hook says the problem today is students can not relate to the academic discourse, or as Friere writes in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed current pedagogy focuses on a banking model of education in which the teacher deposits objective facts into students/depositories. To create a classroom where marginalized and oppressed peoples will find ways to be active citizens we must abandon current practices and embrace a critical practice that integrates students subjectivities with the text, to realize their power to speak of counter narratives and question power and government, not simply learn how to be effective factory workers for Power Inc.
Megan -
I agree with everything you say about education's role in promoting domination. Ironically, I think this is a case where if we followed the original meaning of political techne, then some of these forms of domination would be alleviated because the original meaning theoretically assumed all people were capable of such knowledge, even if it wasn't accepted in practice.
It seems that all these excavations arrive at the same conclusion - we people have all messed up what words used to mean - which begs the question, does arguing about what it means change it? Perhaps we shall see...
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