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For Muslim women, practicing hijab, the covering up of one's hair and body is considered an honorable thing to do. For non-Muslim women, covering oneself in such a manner is considered unusual, unnecessary and uncomfortable, particularly on hot, summer days.
In India, marriage is looked upon as the pragmatic joining of two families and, therefore, families often arrange marriages among young men and women. In the United States and many other Western countries, love is regarded as a powerful emotion that overtakes two individuals who have the right to decide their own romantic and marital destinies.
In Japan and other Asian countries, direct eye contact is considered rude and aggressive. In the United States, avoidance of eye contact is considered evasive, strange and, in some cases, offensive.
In some African countries, the practice of female genital mutilation is common, accepted and deemed necessary if a woman is ever to find a husband to marry. In the West, this practice has been condemned as barbaric and horrific.
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Which culture is right and which is wrong? How do we navigate our way through a world where such differences exist? Do we here in the United States have a right to dictate to people in other countries with radically different cultural beliefs how they should behave?
Centuries after Protagoras' student wrote the Dissoi Logoi, Protagoras' ideas on relativism and measured debate are as relevant as ever in our modern world. In fact, the whole thrust of the multicultural education movement in the United States, which began in the 160s, is a Protagorean artifact.
In the Dissoi Logoi, the student uses Protagoras' doctrine of opposing arguments to illustrate his closely related concept that humans are the measure of all things. It is in the second section of the treatise entitled "On Seemly and Shameful" that the author deals directly with the issue of cultural relativism.
He writes that
To Spartans, for example, it is seemly that girls should exercise naked or walk around bare-armed or without a tunic, but to Ionians, this is shameful…….. The Thracians count it an adornment that their girls tattoo themselves, but in the eyes of everyone else tattoo-marks are a punishment for wrong-doers……Massagetes cut up their parents and eat them, and it seems to them an especially seemly form of entombment to be buried inside of one's children; if a person did this in Greece he would be driven out of Greece and die a miserable death for doing things that are shameful and horrible.
Just as the ancient Greeks had to communicate and co-exist with the Macedonians, the Spartans, the Scythians and the Thessalians, modern-day Americans must interact with the Iraqis, the French, the Mexicans, the Koreans and the Canadians (a notoriously difficult nation). Not only that, but there are more and more people coming to the United States every year from all over the world and staying here to raise their families.
According to 000 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, the number of Americans identifying themselves as white/non-Latino dropped from 7.57% in 180 to 6.1% in 000, and the number of African Americans rose only slightly from 11.56% in 180 to 1.6% in 000. In contrast, the numbers of Americans identifying themselves as Asian rose from 1.54% in 180 to .60% in 000, and the number of Latino Americans rose from 6.45% in 180 to 1.55% in 000.
The antilogic and human-measure principals are useful in a society such ours where ethnic and cultural diversity makes absolute truths difficult to qualify. Protagoras asserts that all knowledge is relative to each individual's perspective, which is invariably shaded by their psychological, social and cultural backgrounds. He also asserts that for every issue one can think of under the sun, there are "two arguments opposed to each other".
Instead of defining the argument for one culture's way of doing things as superior to another culture, Protagoras would encourage the close examination and comparison of each competing logos in order to gain a deeper understanding of both. This approach to dissension would be in keeping with the philosophy behind the modern multicultural movement.
Multiculturalism developed out of the U.S. civil rights movement of the 150s and 160s. During the latter part of the 160s, activists began openly challenging the American educational system, demanding that it be more egalitarian and inclusive of all races.
Following the civil rights victories of the 160s, there was a push throughout the country to change schools' curricula for students at all levels, from Kindergarten through college. But changing the curricula so that it was less racially exclusive was only one of the agendas of the multicultural movement. In the 170s and 180s, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and disability all became areas of focus for the movement as well.
In his 18 book Multicultural Education Issues and Perspectives, James Banks, one of the pioneers of multicultural education, wrote that
In order to maintain a "multicultural school environment", all aspects of the school have to be examined and transformed, including policies, teachers' attitudes, instructional materials, assessment methods, counseling and teaching styles.
Protagoras would undoubtedly endorse multiculturalism, in principal at least, if he were alive today for it encourages dialogue among and between parties with opposing perspectives. Antilogic demands a robust exchange between two, different and generally competing logos. It urges us to not only accommodate opposing arguments, but to seek them out and to recognize them as being as valid as our own. It emphasizes the importance of a true, vigorous exchange of ideas, where each side really listens to the other and doesn't merely try to gloss over differences in order to arrive at a superficial agreement.
It is often illuminating to note the detractors of a movement or philosophy because in defining the contrasting elements of a competing ideology, the contours of the original ideology become easier to define. Not surprisingly, many of the critics of the multicultural movement argue that Western culture is superior to all other cultures and need not share the academic or artistic stage with them.
Scholars such as philosophy professor Allan Bloom uphold the Western cannon of texts as the more authentic and valuable than those of other cultures. He argues that by insisting that students learn about other cultures, the educational system weakens itself. Without complete hegemony, his reasoning goes, Western-centered researchers and scholars will face oblivion.
In his 187 book Closing of the American Mind, Bloom states
War is the fundamental phenomenon on which peace can sometimes be forced, but always in the most precious way. Liberal democracies do not fight wars with one another because they see the same human nature and the same rights applicable everywhere and to everyone. Cultures fight wars with one another. They must do so because values can only be asserted or posited by overcoming others, not by reasoning with them. (p.0)
As far as Bloom sees it, there can be no antilogical "bilateral flow" of information between those who value the Western cannon of educational teachings, which of course includes the artifacts of ancient Greece, and those who value the teachings of other cultures. Bloom and other critics of multiculturalism would be more closely aligned with Plato and Aristotle than with Protagoras in their belief in one, absolute notion of truth and, in their case, culture that is superior to all others.
They would also be more in line with Plato in their contempt for those who do not seek out the unadulterated truth or bow down to the superiority of Western culture. The aroma of elitism is unmistakable in many of the writings of the critics of both rhetoric and multiculturalism.
In addition to those who oppose the multicultural education movement because they believe it threatens the traditional Western cannon of arts and letters, there are those who attack multiculturalism because they believe it threatens our freedom as individuals.
Followers of the author Ayn Rand, who espoused a philosophy of radical individualism, have also been ardent critics of multiculturalism. They believe that every individual's reality is unique and different from everyone else's reality. According to their philosophy, selfishness, egotism and capitalism are good and anything that resembles communalism or collectivism is bad. They despise multiculturalism because they think that it encourages a "group-think" mentality, and denies individuals who belong to a cultural group the freedom to develop an identity that is independent of their group identity.
In light of the fact that critics have labeled Protagoras solipsistic, it is ironic that those who embrace radical individualism -- a philosophy that could safely be categorized as solipsistic -- attack a neo-Protagorean philosophy such as multiculturalism.
In his 00 book Many Sides, Michael Mendelson, Ph.D. defends Protagoras from those who charge him with solipsism by pointing out the inherently social nature of his antilogical theory. Mendelson argues that for any logos or argument to have any meaning to anyone other than the rhetor, it must be
"……examined alongside alternative positions, the antilogi which naturally arise in the process of open, social exchange. Only by comparing the widest variety of positions and counter-pointing each against objections raised by another can we arrive at ideas agreed upon as sound." (p.44)
This, of course, is a far cry from the solipsistic philosophy of denying that anything exists outside of the "realm of personal consciousness".
Proponents of multiculturalism and good, old-fashioned Protagorean debate would have to agree that the diversity and complexity of our modern world demand a reexamination of rhetorical dialogue. Our world today isn't that much different from ancient Greece in that the men and occasionally women who we elect democratically to run our public affairs still face similar crises. Not the least of these include whether or not to wage war on a country when all of the facts are still be gathered.
It is more important than ever that we don't rely on our own counsel to navigate ourselves through the multicultural maze we also know as the world. The time has never been better to endorse the Protagorean principal of strenuous debate and respect for those who oppose our way of thinking for if everyone is right, then as Bloom so vividly states, war will continue to be our "fundamental phenomenon."
References
Banks, James (187) C. Banks (Ed.), Multicultural Education Issues and Perspectives. Boston Allyn and Bacon.
Bloom, Allan (187). Closing of the American Mind. New York, New York Simon and Schuster.
Mendeldon, Michael (00). Many Sides A Protagorean Approach to Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy of Argument. Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishers.
References
Banks, James (187) C. Banks (Ed.), Multicultural Education Issues and Perspectives. Boston Allyn and Bacon.
Bloom, Allan (187). Closing of the American Mind. New York, New York Simon and Schuster.
Mendeldon, Michael (00). Many Sides A Protagorean Approach to Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy of Argument. Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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