Researching Socratic Pedagogy and Education in Plato's Republic

Researching Socratic Pedagogy and Education in Plato's Republic

ABSTRACT: Though Plato never wrote a dialogue that explicitly asks, "What is education?", few argue that he is uninterested in the subject; after all, Plato, like Socrates, was a teacher. In his magnum opus, the Republic, Plato deals with education repeatedly. The eduction of the guardian class and the allegory of the cave present two landmark pedagogical passages. Yet to catch a glimpse of Socratic pedagogy, we must first sift through the intricacies of dialogue. In addition to the complexity inherent in dramatic context, it seems clear that Socrates’ remarks are often steeped in irony. Thus, we stumble upon a problem: how should we read these passages on education? Does Plato mean for us to read them genuinely or ironically? I will argue that Plato uses the dramatic context of the Republic to suggest that Socrates presents the education of the guardians ironically, while reserving the allegory of the cave for a glimpse of Socrates’ genuine pedagogy.

I. Introduction

Though Plato never wrote a dialogue that explicitly asks, "What is education?", few argue that he is uninterested in the subject; after all, Plato, like Socrates, was a teacher.(1) In his magnum opus, the Republic, Plato deals with education repeatedly. The education of the guardian class and the allegory of the cave present two landmark pedagogical passages. Yet to catch a glimpse of Socratic pedagogy, we must first sift through the intricacies of dialogue. In addition to the complexity inherent in dramatic context, it seems clear that Socrates' remarks are often steeped in irony.(2) Thus, we stumble upon a problem: how should we read these passages on education? Does Plato mean for us to rea...

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...l 1988) 214-231.

(10) by undesirable, I mean that Socrates wants to prohibit the guardians from even considering something contrary to the ideal for fear that they may be corrupted.

(11) Werner Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1943), 294.

(12) Again, this is just the sort of response we see in Glaucon when Socrates begins the analogy of the cave (515a).

(13) both the convention of those in his environment and the convention that he himself has sensorily experienced to be true in his environment

(14) In light of the perdicament of the cave dwellers, it is clear that the teacher is absolutely necessary if philosophic insight is to occur. The cave dweller will never leave the prison on his own, only the teacher can forcibly free him from his shackles.

(15) op cit.

(16) op cit.

(17) Miller, 5.1