Corrupting Youth (ebook)

Argumento de Corrupting Youth (ebook)

In Corrupting Youth, Peter Euben explores the affinities between Socratic philosophy and Athenian democratic culture as a way to think about issues of politics and education, both ancient and modern. The book moves skillfully between antiquity and the present, from ancient to contemporary political theory, and from Athenian to American democracy. It draws together important recent work by political theorists with the views of classical scholars in ways that shine new light on significant theoretical debates such as those over discourse ethics, rational choice, and political realism, and on political issues such as school vouchers and education reform. Euben not only argues for the generative capacity of classical texts and Athenian political thought, he demonstrates it by thinking with them to provide a framework for reflecting more deeply about socially divisive issues such as the war over the canon and the "politicization" of the university.

Drawing on Aristophanes' Clouds, Sophocles' Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannos, and Plato's Apology of Socrates, Gorgias, and Protagoras, Euben develops a view of democratic political education. Arguing that Athenian democratic practices constituted a tradition of accountability and self-critique that Socrates expanded into a way of doing philosophy, Euben suggests a necessary reciprocity between political philosophy and radical democracy. By asking whether we can or should take "Socrates" out of the academy and put him back in front of a wider audience, Euben argues for anchoring contemporary higher education in appreciative yet skeptical encounter with the dramatic figure in Plato's dialogues.

"In this wide-ranging study of political thought in classical Athens, Peter Euben locates Greek explorations of the civic community, and how one educates people for it, in the context of contemporary debates over higher education in the United States. . . . [This] work, probing and reflective, with many surprising twists and turns, will spark quite enough (democratic) discussion and debate as it is."--American Journal of Philology0Preface Ch. I Imploding the Canon: The Reform of Education and the War over Culture 3 Ch. II Corrupting Socrates 32 Ch. III The Battle of Salamis and the Origins of Political Theory 64 Ch. IV Democratic Accountability and Socratic Dialectic 91 Ch. V When There Are Gray Skies: Aristophanes' Clouds and the Political Education of Democratic Citizens 109 Ch. VI Antigone and the Languages of Politics 139 Ch. VII Oedipean Complexities and Political Science: Tragedy and the Search for Knowledge 179 Ch. VIII The Gorgias, Socratic Dialectic, and the Education of Democratic Citizens 202 Ch. IX The Protagoras and the Political Education of Democratic Citizens 229 Index 267