Plato's Socrates As Educator

by Scott, Gary Alan

• ISBN13: 9780791447239
• ISBN10: 0791447235
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Despite his ceaseless efforts to purge his fellow citizens of their unfounded opinions and to bring them to care for what he believes to be the most important things, Plato's Socrates rarely succeeds in his pedagogical project with the characters he encounters. This is in striking contrast to the historical Socrates, who spawned the careers of Plato, Xenophon, and other authors of Socratic dialogues. Through an examination of Socratic pedagogy under its most propitious conditions, focusing on a narrow class of dialogues featuring Lysis and Alcibiades, this book answers the question: "why does Plato portray his divinely appointed gadfly as such a dramatic failure?"

Author Biography

Gary Alan Scott is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Saint Peter's College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
List of Abbreviations	viii
Introduction	1	(12)
Socrates and Teaching	13	(38)
Why Socrates Denies Being a Teacher	15	(9)
Conventional Athenian Assumptions about Teachers and Teaching	24	(3)
Socrates as Student: The Contrast between a Market and a Gift Economy	27	(10)
The Meaning of ``Teaching'' in the Gorgias: ``Additive'' versus ``Integrative'' Models	37	(6)
Conclusion: The Socratic Paideusis	43	(8)
The Lysis: Limits and Liberation in Socrates' Encounter with Lysis	51	(30)
The Threshold Imagery in the Dramatic Setting and Prologue (203a1-206e2)	59	(3)
Socrates' First Conversation with Lysis (206e3-211b5)	62	(1)
Step One---The Unsettling: Disturbing What is Familiar	63	(3)
Step Two---The Arousal: Fanning the Flames of Desire	66	(3)
Step Three---The Chastening: Reimposing Limits	69	(5)
Conclusion: The Positive Results of the Lysis	74	(7)
The Alcibiades I: Socratic Dialogue as Self-Care	81	(38)
Disarming Alcibiades: The Preliminary Contest	86	(5)
Introduction to the Problem of Taking Trouble over Oneself	91	(2)
The Meaning of Taking Trouble over Oneself	93	(5)
Practices for ``Taking Trouble'': Gumnastike and Mathesis	98	(1)
Gumnastike and Dialogue	99	(14)
Learning What Needs to be Learned	113	(3)
Conclusion: The Ominous End of the Alcibiades I	116	(3)
The Symposium: Eros, Truth Telling, and the Preservation of Freedom	119	(40)
Alcibiades' Motive in the Agon with Socrates	121	(5)
Alcibiades' Attempt to Dominate Socrates	126	(5)
Eros and Thumos	131	(3)
The Vindication of Socrates' Approach to Others	134	(4)
Irony and Inebriation: Two Ways of Telling the Truth	138	(2)
Six Points of Emphasis in Alcibiades' Speech	140	(5)
Inebriation and Parrhesia in Truth Telling	145	(7)
Conclusion: Adjudicating the Agon over Truth Telling	152	(7)
Dramatic Failure and the Gift in Socratic Paideusis	159	(20)
Notes	179	(56)
Selected Bibliography	235	(10)
Index	245