The Educational Value of Plato's Early Socratic Dialogues
ABSTRACT: When contemplating the origins of philosophical paideia one is tempted to think of Socrates, perhaps because we feel that Socrates has been a philosophical educator to us all. But it is Plato and his literary genius that we have to thank as his dialogues preserve not just Socratic philosophy, but also the Socratic educational experience. Educators would do well to better understand Plato's pedagogical objectives in the Socratic dialogues so that we may appreciate and utilize them in our own educational endeavors, and so that we may adapt the Socratic experience to new interactive educational technologies. Plato designed his Socratic dialogues to arm students for real world challenges and temptations. First, in both form and function the dialogues attempt to replicate the Socratic experience for their audience. They demand from their readers what Socrates demanded from his students: active learning, self-examination, and an appreciation for the complexity and importance of wisdom. Second, the dialogues challenge the conflation of professional and personal excellence, best exemplified by sophists such as Hippias, and exhort their reader to pursue personal aretê separately from and alongside practical and professional skills or technai. Third, they aim not to transmit some prepackaged formula for success, but to teach students to learn for themselves; that is to love and pursue wisdom. The Socratic dialogues, and philosophic dialogue itself, are educationally important in that they teach us to be philosophers in the literal sense.
It is instructively ironic that scholars look immediately to the Republic when considering Plato's theory of education, yet most of...
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...oral sense from being good at a particular skill .
(3) I am here reminded of one of my own student's reaction to Socrates. A meek Vietnamese woman who said barely anything in class wrote, "Socrates gives me the courage to stand up for my belief and not to be afraid of others who tell me I'm wrong."
(4) For this description I am indebted to Prof. Kostas Michaelides of the University of Cyprus.
(5) This image is expressed eloquently in Socrates' elenchos of Agathon in Symposium [199c-201c] and of Menexenus in Lysis [216c-221d]
(6) See, for example, Laches 192e ff. and Charmides 164bc.
(7) I am indebted for this eloquent distinction to Prof. Gerhard A. Rauche, Professor Emeritus of the University of Durban-Westivile, South Africa.
(8) These characteristics of the Platonic telos are advocated by Prof. Apostolos Pierris of the University of Patras, Greece
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.
Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve. Plato Complete Works. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997.
For Plato, education was more fundamental than tradition or literature or civilization or culture, for education determined how all the others were to be acquired, appreciated, and criticized. Indeed, education and philosophy were, as they are now, intimately linked. The practice of philosophy in Plato's time as in ours, the business of philosophy, was teaching far more than it was system-building. In fact, if Plato was the author of a system of philosophy, by which we are to understand a coherent set of interrelated axioms and their mutual implications, then Plato was a profoundly unsuccessful philosopher. For Plato makes such a variety of different and incompatible statements about so many topics that more than two thousand years of scholarship has thus far failed to produce anything like the consensus about his so-called system that one finds among Aristotelians, for example, or even Marxists.
False memories being created is obvious through many different ways, such as eye-witness testimonies and past experiments that were conducted, however repression is an issue that has many baffled. There seems to be little evidence on the factual basis of repressed memories, and many argue that it does not exist. The evidence for repression in laboratories is slowly emerging, but not as rapidly as the evidence for false memories. It has been hard to clinically experiment with repressed memories because most memories are unable to be examined during the actual event to corroborate stories. Experimenters are discovering new ways to eliminate this barrier by creating memories within the experiment’s initial phase. This is important for examining the creation of false memories during the study phase. This research study will explore the differences between recovered memories and false memories through research and experiments. Other terms and closely related terms will be discussed, while examining any differences, in relation to repressed memories. The possibility of decoding an actual difference between recovered memories and false memories, through biological techniques. Because false memories can be created, examining these creations in a laboratory setting can shed light on facts overlooked. Exploring these issues will also help with the development of better therapeutic techniques for therapists in dealing with memories. This can lead to an easier process for patients and therapists if they must go through the legal system in relation to an uncovered memory.
1) Marra, James L., Zelnick, Stephen C., and Mattson, Mark T. IH 51 Source Book: Plato, The Republic, pp. 77-106
Socrates’ philosophical beliefs and life isn’t accurately represented in the modern world. Since there aren’t any writings from Socrates himself, his life, beliefs, and philosophy has to be depicted through the writings of Plato, Aristophanes, Aristotle and Xenophon, with Plato being the most informational and dependable source. These writers that do mention Socrates in their writings aren’t always accurate and are sometimes very contradicting and inconsistent. In Plato’s writing, it is difficult to distinguish the ideas and beliefs of Socrates from Plato’s. Some historians believe that the beliefs of Plato were based upon Socrates. Some believe that the beliefs of Socrates were interpreted by Plato in his writings. Others believe Socrates didn’t have any ideas of his own. This unclear representation of Socrates is known as the Socratic Problem. Due to the S...
In his works, Plato writes about truth, justice, and reality in full detail. His ideas are greatly deep and persuasively argued. It is from him that all western philosophy is a footnote. He describes his view in a series of numerous dialogues. For my report, I have chosen four of his works to study, which I think were his most important.
Two of Ophelia’s difficulties arise from her father and brother. They believe that Hamlet is using her to take her virginity and throw it away because Ophelia will never be his wife. Her heart believes that Hamlet loves her although he promises he never has (“Hamlet” 1). Hamlet: “Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but not the time gives it proof. I did love you once.” Ophelia: “Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.” Hamlet: “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock ...
...She had lost her father and her lover while her brother was away for school, and she was no longer useful as a puppet in a greater scheme. Ophelia was displaced, an Elizabethan woman without the men on whom she had been taught to depend. Therein lies the problem - she lacked independence so much that she could not continue living without Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet. Ophelia's aloneness led to her insanity and death. The form of her death was the only fitting end for her - she drowned in a nearby river, falling beneath the gentle waters. She finally found peace in her mad world. That is how Ophelia is so useful as a classic feminist study - she evokes imagery of the fragile beauty women are expected to become, but shows what happens to women when they submit as such.
Plato. "Gorgias.” Voices of Ancient Philosophy. Ed. Julia Annas. New York: Oxford, 2001. 305-318. Print.
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.
Plato (420-348 BC) has been called one of the greatest mind thinkers of all time. Plato came from a wealthy and influential family in Athens. Plato was taught by the great philosopher Socrates and Plato 's pupil was Aristotle. Plato cover a great variety of subjects such as justice, politics, leadership, and education. Plato 's ideas have been called great, however, some critics have said he 's ideals were unrealistic. This paper will look at four different authors and their critiques of Plato 's philosophy of education. Most of the authors agree with Plato 's philosophy of education, but the major criticism is Plato calls for censorship in education. The first author that this paper will talk about is Edward Power.
Plato (428-328 BC) was a successful philosopher, influenced by people like Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Pythagoreans: But, the most influential person in Plato’s life was Socrates (Nicholas). Socrates used oral arguing to cross-examine people, asking them to define an idea or concept and through argument, improve their answer to give a better definition and thus gain wisdom; this was called the Socratic Method. Socrates used to argue concepts such as wisdom, justice, virtue and love. Plato supported Socrates ideas but criticized his work. He supported Socrates because he wasn’t biased and didn’t conceal the issues at hand: But, Plato criticized Socrates work because Socrates believed that during the “reincarnation of an eternal soul which contained all knowledge, we lose touch wit...
In today's world, economics associated disciplines are of fundamental significance and application and this has encouraged me to pursue a degree in Economics. Economics has an important relevance in all of our lives. As consumers we try to make the best of our limited incomes. As workers we take our place in the job market. As citizens of a country our lives are affected by the decisions of our government: decisions over taxes, decisions over spending on health and education, decisions on interest rates, decisions that affect unemployment, inflation and growth. As dwellers on the planet Earth we are affected by the economic decisions of each other: the air we breathe, the water we drink and the environment we leave for future generations are all affected by the economic decisions taken by the human race. It is these stimulating issues that excite me about economics. I enjoy studying Economics enormously and believe my passionate interest in economics is continually strengthened by my regular reading of 'The Economist'
Organization is a group of people brought to gather to achieve specific goals. Goals can be achieved if team member are performing well. Performance is the results of activities given to the employees in an organization to be achieved within specific period of time. Evaluating the current performance of employees against past performances and organizational standards is known as Performance Appraisal (Dessler, 2005). Furthermore performance appraisal helps the company know how individual employees are performing and how to improve their performance thus improving the performance of the company (Grubb, 2007). A performance appraisal is propose in which the performance management system in an organizations set work goals, determine performance standards, provide performance feedback, determine training and development needs and distribute rewards as well as evaluating an employee’s job performance during a period of time. The performance of team member is much more than appraising individuals’ works, it is managing the business, so the performance of an employee is influences by the performance of an organization. It is target to achieve the best results for the planned strategic by managing activities of employees. There are many different opinions on the performance appraisals, some organizations do performance appraisals without any aim just follow others., where some organizations do performance appraisals to make sure they have a record of a piece of paper in the employee’s file – they are careless about do corrective action. But successful organizations understand the importance of combining performance appraisals into their performance management process and strategy plan as the success of any organizatio...