Democracy is a never-ending challenge. Plato’s warning about the decadence of the soul
under democracy will forever haunt us, and we only lose by adopting the triumphalist
attitude which renounces the need for self-criticism and continual improvement. In our
time, the challenge comes in the form of global interconnectedness, light-speed travelling
information, and superabundant distractions faced by nearly everyone, nearly all of the
time. But democracy thrives on a different sort of environment: it requires calm, attentive
reading, listening, and reflection. Educational institutions are generally struggling to
adapt to this ‘brave new world.’ They insist on employing the traditional method of
education which does not improve understanding and fails to motivate students for
autonomous learning and active citizenship. However, the problem of education is seldom
seriously addressed in the public sphere and is relatively underdeveloped even in the
literature of political science and political philosophy. In this thesis, I draw mainly from
political philosophy, philosophy of education, and epistemology, to assert that (1)
democracy requires a large number of active citizens for its preservation, that (2)
traditional education does not serve that end, but that (3) liberal education does, and (4)
one way of achieving it is through the group reading and discussion of ancient Greek
texts. This thesis is then an attempt to show that liberal education – or teaching for
autonomy and citizenship – is a necessity in a democracy that aims to be not merely an
institutional arrangement, but a way of life
