Beyond rationalism: Rhetoric, democratic virtue, and liberatory pedagogy

This paper redefines the Platonic cardinal virtues in democratic, dialogic terms following upon the fragments of Protagoras. Of foremost significance is sophrosyne, as each of the others embody this virtue. Classically defined as a union of arete (virtue), episteme (knowledge), and techne (skill), the purpose of sophrosyne is to rescue public decisions from private interests; thus Plato considers it a virtue only of the ruling elite, while Aristotle interprets it as knowing and maintaining one´s place in the social order. As rational liberalism likewise distinguishes between elite and mass, these virtues may be tied by analogy to assumptions that often result in anti-democratic patterns in current pedagogical practices and field service in developing communities. Neo-Protagorean theory resonates with the pedagogical theory of Paolo Freire, which balances the liberty and authority of teacher and students against the needs of the collective, grounding pedagogy in collegial and co-investigative practice, thus redefining the practices of decision-making from agonistic and competitive to dialogic and problem-solving.