Plato's Socrates, philosophy and education / James M. Magrini.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Magrini, James M., author.

Series:

SpringerBriefs in education. Key thinkers in education

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plato.

Socrates.

Education--Philosophy.

Education.

Physical Description:

xv, 121 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Plato's Socrates

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Springer, [2018]

Summary:

This book develops for the readers Plato's Socrates' non-formalized "philosophical practice" of learning-through-questioning in the company of others. In doing so, the writer confronts Plato's Socrates, in the words of John Dewey, as the "dramatic, restless, cooperatively inquiring philosopher" of the dialogues, whose view of education and learning is unique: (1) It is focused on actively pursuing a form of philosophical understanding irreducible to truth of a propositional nature, which defies "transfer" from practitioner to pupil; (2) It embraces the perennial "on-the-wayness" of education and learning in that to interrogate the virtues, or the "good life" through the practice of the dialectic, is to continually renew the quest for a deeper understanding of things by returning to, reevaluating and modifying the questions originally posed regarding the "good life". Indeed Socratic philosophy is a life of questioning those aspects of existence that are most question-worthy; and (3) It accepts that learning is a process guided and structured by dialectic inquiry, and is already immanent within and possible only because of the unfolding of the process itself, i.e., learning is not a goal that somehow stands outside the dialectic as its end product, which indicates erroneously that the method or practice is disposable. For learning occurs only through continued, sustained communal dialogue.

Contents:

Introduction: doctrinal and non-doctrinal interpretations of Plato and Plato's Socrates

Plato's Socrates: the issues of pedagogy and knowledge of the virtues The ontological context of the human condition: original Socratic questions and the paradox of learning

The unfolding of the Elenchus-dialectic as "educative" event: instantiating an ethical disposition through Socratic dialogue

Epilogue: learning from Plato's Socrates.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9783319713557

3319713558

OCLC:

1007308454