Socratic Synousia : A Post-Platonic Myth?

Tarrant, Harold

doi:10.1353/hph.2005.0125

Cited by 43 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…31. Tarrant (2005) has argued, however, that the claims about association (sunousia) in the midwife passage may have been added to Theaetetus in the Academy of Polemo. Even if Tarrant is right and the evidence of Theaetetus should be doubted, one can argue that association of some sort must have been integral to Socratic pedagogy.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Educators in Plato's Theaetetus

Mintz¹

2011

J. Philos. Educ.

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Scholars who have taken interest inTheaetetus' educational theme argue that Plato contrasts an inferior, even dangerous, sophistic education to a superior, philosophical, Socratic education. I explore the contrasting exhortations, methods, ideals and epistemological foundations of Socratic and Protagorean education and suggest that Socrates' treatment of Protagoras as educator is far less dismissive than others claim. Indeed, Plato, in Theaetetus, offers a qualified defence of both Socrates and Protagoras. Socrates and Protagoras each dwell in the middle ground between the extremes presented in the dialogue's digression, which contrasts the life of the philosopher and the life of the courtroom orator. Both Socrates and Protagoras demonstrate a serious engagement with both politics and philosophy. Theodorus presents an educational option in which theory is divorced from politics while an ignoble sophistic education is presented as political but divorced from theory. Protagorean education, in Theaetetus, emerges as superior to a base sophistic education, though it remains inferior to Socratic education.Theaetetus is Plato's masterful dialogue on the question 'what is knowledge' and rightfully holds the preeminent place among classic discussions of epistemology. Theaetetus also contains several educational analogies: learning is compared to writing on a wax block (191c-196c) or the flocking of birds in an intellectual aviary (197b-200d). In addition, it offers arguably the greatest of Plato's many educational images, the educator as midwife. The midwife analogy vividly presents an educational insight that remains influential to this day-specifically that ideas may be drawn out of young minds by asking the right questions. Curiously, though the midwife metaphor is often cited in relation to the contemporary use of the 'Socratic method' in elementary, secondary, higher and, especially, legal education, educational philosophers have tended to neglect Theaetetus and the powerful educational analogy therein. 1 Indeed, to my knowledge, there are only three sustained treatments of Theaetetus in educational journals (Hansen,

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Educators in Plato's Theaetetus

Mintz¹

2011

J. Philos. Educ.

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“…Or, comme nous l'avons vu, la gratuité est un enjeu de l'enseignement de l'excellence car elle est la condition de possibilité d'une véritable relation d'amitié entre le maître et son élève. L'importance d'une telle amitié -au sens fort, c'est-à-dire que l'amitié entre le maître et l'élève n'est pas fondée sur l'utilité ou le plaisir, mais sur la vertu 26 -est prégnante dans l'oeuvre de Platon comme dans celle de Xénophon, comme en témoigne le fait que, chez eux, Socrate n'a pas d'élèves (mathêtai) mais bien des compagnons (sunontes) (Tarrant, 2005 ;Cambron-Goulet, 2017b). L'enseignement que l'on donne est une prestation telle que dans le savoir qui est reçu par l'élève se trouve 24 Nic.…”

Section: L'enseignement Permet De Se Faire Des Amisunclassified

Gratuité et gratification

Cambron-Goulet

2018

ethiqueedufor

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Il est bien connu que Socrate ne recevait pas d’argent pour son enseignement. En effet, la critique de la perception d’un salaire par les enseignants, pratiquée notamment par les sophistes, était courante chez les philosophes antiques. Ce refus de recevoir un salaire repose sur une conception pour le moins particulière de la nature même du savoir philosophique et de la relation entre l’enseignant et son élève. Cet article vise à examiner les profits matériels et intellectuels qui font de l’enseignement de la philosophie une activité gratifiante, qui mérite d’être choisie pour elle-même, en s’appuyant sur les oeuvres de Platon, de Xénophon et d’Aristote, dans lesquelles les critiques de l’enseignant salarié sont les plus virulentes.

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“…See Tarrant (2005) on the use of the term συνουσία (sunousia) and cognates (σύνειμι [suneimi], συγγίγνεσθαι [sungignesthai]) in Plato's Socratic works; in Plato's authentic dialogues the terminology, although referring to Socratic conversation, is non-technical and under-specific, mostly used for its sexual overtones.…”

Section: The Formal Objectionmentioning

confidence: 99%