Plato on Education as the Development of Reason
ABSTRACT: Socrates' great educational innovation was in ascribing moral worth to the intellectual activity reflectively directed at one's own life. His concept of eudaimonia was so different from the ordinary that talking about it took on sometimes a paradoxical air, as in Apology 30b3. For him, reason is not a tool for attaining goals independently thought worthwhile; rather, rationality itself, expressed in the giving of reasons and the avoidance of contradictions, confers value to goals and opinions. Persons are reasonable, but obviously not the empirical human being. But education is aimed at the empirical man or woman and inevitably employs psychological means. How then is it possible that the result of education should grow out of the depths of each individual and be nevertheless valid for all individuals? In the Symposium, Plato gives Aristophanes the crucial move. Each of us is only half the whole person and we are moved by our desire for what we lack. In this context, to claim that the soul is immortal is to claim-at least-that the soul has a non-empirical dimension, that its real objects are not the objects of desire as such, and that a person's sensible life is not the true basis for the evaluation of his or her eudaimonia. However, in the soul which is not free from contradictions there is no advantage to right but unexamined options. There is in the life of the naïve just an insecurity which is not merely pragmatic. Even if a person never falters to the end of life, this is no more than moral luck. One is still guilty on the level of the logos, and liable to blame and punishment not for what one does, but for what one could have done.
'The unexamined life', says ...
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...ra, e.g., T.Irwin, Plato's Ethics (New York and London, Oxford University Press, 1995), 301f.
(6) Cf. J. Mittelstrass, 'On socratic dialogue', Platonic Writings / Platonic Readings, ed. C.L. Griswold (New York and London, Routledge, 1988), 126-142.
(7) Cf., e.g., Callicles: 'I care nothing for what you say, and even those answers I gave you because of Gorgias' (Gorgias 505c5-6); Thrasymachus: 'To appease you, since anyway you do not let me talk. What else do you want?' (Republic i 350e6-7).
(8) Diogenes Laertius vi 24.
(9) So, for example, Phaedrus 246 ff.
(10) Phaedrus 271d ff.
(11) Cf. H. v. Arnim, Platon's Jugenddialoge (Leipzig, 1914); S.Scolnicov, 'Friends and friendship in Plato', Scripta Classica Israelica xii (1993), 67-74.
(12) Cf.Phaedo 89b10.
(13) Cf. S. Scolnicov, Plato's Metaphysics of Education (London, Routledge, 1988), ch. 12.
Cairns, Huntington, and Hamilton, Edith. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Socrates Defense (Apology).Library of Congress Catalogue, Nineteenth printing, May 2010
Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve. Plato Complete Works. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997.
Plato, and G. M. A. Grube. "Phaedo." Five Dialogues. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub., 2002. 93-
Plato. The Republic. Classics of Moral and Political Theory. 2nd ed. Michael L. Morgan. Indianapolis : Hackett Publishing Company, 1996. 32 - 246.
Marra, James L., Zelnick, Stephen C., and Mattson, Mark T. IH 51 Source Book: Plato, The Republic, pp. 77-106. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa, 1998.
Out of the confrontation with Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus, Socrates emerges as a reflective individual searching for the rational foundation of morality and human excellence. The views presented by the three men are invalid and limited as they present a biased understanding of justice and require a re-examination of the terminology. The nature in which the faulty arguments are presented, leave the reader longing to search for the rational foundations of morality and human virtue.
7 Extrapolated from 25c from Wests, Thomas G and Grace Starr. Plato's Apology of Socrates. Taken from
Plato, and G. M. A. Grube. Five Dialogues. 2nd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub., 2002. Print.
“Films contain a number of separate copyrights” (Film & Copyright, 2012). Third party copyright material could include music and recordings incorporated into the soundtrack, screenplay and visual images. It is important to get clearance for any third party copyright material and to get a written agreement so each party is clear what their rights are.
The meaning of eudaimonia, etymologically, is ‘good spirit’ and it is generally translated as ‘happiness’; in Aristotelian terms, ‘happiness’ represents the highest human good and it is also the representation of the soul’s virtues. The identification of the soul parts as the contributors and main elements for the function of the most important human activity (reasoning), marks the inevitable psychological asset of Aristotle’s thinking; specifically, the classification of human virtues derives from the analysis of the soul’s types, attributing to human beings the ability of reasoning which distinguishes human beings from the rest of ‘natural bodies.’ Indeed, reason exists in two parts of the soul, namely the rational and the appetitive (desires or passions), and so it expresses within two different virtues, the moral and intellectual ones.
Plato, Phaedrus, trans. R. Hackforth, in Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato (New York: Pantheon, 1966).
Plato. The Dialogues of Plato. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Great Books of the Western World. 54 vols. Chicago:Encyclopaedia Britannica 1952. Vol. 7.
Whether Socrates is portrayed correctly or not, he certainly was a great man. His contribution to western thought cannot be denied. For even if his teachings were different from what they are known to be at present, his influence on Plato is immense. And so, it is no small matter to describe the tragic passing of such a man as Socrates was and remains for philosophy today. Yet in all the indignation which is expected to arise at the death of Socrates, the panache with which he departs is captured excellently in Plato's “Apology.” Specifically, at the end of the "Apology," Socrates makes a very important statement that has had great impact on philosophy ever since its original proclamation. The Stoics in particular have taken this to be the cornerstone of their ideology. The statement made is that "you must regard one thing at least as certain—that no harm can come to a good man either in his life or after his death,” (Plato 100). The following examination focuses therefore on a brief explanation of the circumstances which lead to this statement being made by Socrates, as well as a closer look at why he thinks this to be the case. It is assumed that this statement is true, and validation for that assumption is to be sought as well.
1) Marra, James L., Zelnick, Stephen C., and Mattson, Mark T. IH 51 Source Book: Plato, The Republic, pp. 77-106
Plato's upbringing and instruction from Socrates further developed Plato's philosophy, which affected the thinking of today. Plato was born in the year of 348 in Athens. Plato was born in the month of Thargelion (May-June) 428-7 B.C. to Ariston and Perictione. He died at the age of eighty or eighty-one in 348-7 B.C. Plato's birth fell in the fourth year of the Archidamian war. His influence has stayed profound from early to modern times as he set ahead vital problems and concepts facing philosophy, psychology, logic, and politics. This Greek philosopher was one of the most important and original thinkers of the early world.