Socrates, democracy and civic education: A study of the gadfly as guide to the formation of democratic citizen

The purpose of the study that follows is to examine what type of citizen our democratic republic should strive to form given the fundamental tension between order and freedom as it is manifested in the educational problem of preserving a regime. We will do so by treating Socrates as a case study for investigating these matters.;It is a primary aim of this dissertation to show that a standard position is problematic on three counts. First, the standard position offers an overly simplistic and inaccurate depiction of Socrates. Second, the character of the ideal democratic citizen that the standard position purports to discover in Socrates and then promote produces dangerous skepticism for any regime. Third, the standard position's depiction of the ideal democratic citizen also poses difficulties for our democratic republic.;Given the fundamental tension between order and liberty in our democratic regime, this dissertation argues that a pious gadfly may be a more useful model for democratic citizenship because it better satisfies the requirements of citizenship for our democratic regime. This dissertation explores a civic education plan for creating a pious gadfly that avoids the problems of the standard position and better responds to the root tension within our democratic regime.