Dissoi Logoi, Civic Friendship, and the Politics of Education

Abstract

This essay examines the recent debate over the politics of American education, particularly the accusation of liberal bias by members of the Right such as David Horowitz and Students for Academic Freedom. It draws parallels between the contemporary movement for an “Academic Bill of Rights” and the historical context of the “Powell Memo” of 1971. In response to conservative and progressive antagonism, this essay returns to the Sophistic notion of dissoi logoi, the requirement of students to argue many sides of contentious public issues. After reviewing the pedagogy of a contemporary emphasis on dissoi logoi, it contends that such practice within education might promote a civic friendship capable of addressing and ameliorating increasingly hostile public discourse.

Keywords:

• Dissoi Logoi
• Civic Friendship
• Powell Memo
• ABOR
• Sophists

Notes

1. The SAF website is online at http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/

2. The AAUP website maintains several responses to ABOR, which itself references the AAUP's 1940 statement on academic freedom. The definition and issue of dissent within the classroom is a point of contention between the AAUP and ABOR. ABOR recommends, for example, that professors be required to provide and encourage dissenting viewpoints when appropriate, a point the AAUP contends stands in opposition to professing the truth as one understands it. The main website is at http://www.aaup.org/Issues/ABOR/aborintro2.htm

3. FRONTPAGE is online at http://www.frontpagemag.com

4. The text of the Powell Memo is online at http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html

5. The text of ABOR is online at http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/abor.html

6. Blacker does not consider the recent controversy over intelligent design, but one could infer that discussion about the importance of the evolution–creationism–intelligent design debate would be encouraged in public schools, while the teaching of intelligent design in biology classes would not.

7. The text is online at http://www.compact.org/presidential/declaration.html

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Gencarella Olbrys

Stephen Gencarella Olbrys (Ph.D., Indiana University, 2003) is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts