This paper discusses the myriad of pedagogy enacted and/or discussed by Socrates within Plato's d... more This paper discusses the myriad of pedagogy enacted and/or discussed by Socrates within Plato's dialogues. Methodologies including dialectics, elaboration by example, allegories, analogies, imagery, story telling, recollection, and thoughtful inquiry scattered throughout the dialogues. Educators spend time on "the what" of teaching while "the how" to engage, enlighten, and nurture the love of learning and desire to know is often ignored. This paper provides explicit examples of Socrates teaching and connects his pedagogy to present-day instructional strategies that promote relevance and meaning within the context of contemporary teaching and learning.
Forum on Public Policy a Journal of the Oxford Round Table, Jun 22, 2007
Within the text of Plato's Symposium (Jowett, 1975) a dialogue on love takes place. When it is So... more Within the text of Plato's Symposium (Jowett, 1975) a dialogue on love takes place. When it is Socrates turn to speak he defers to Diotima, his teacher. He tells of her wisdom and shares what she taught him. To present his argument he recounts their conversations by reenacting their dialogues and taking both his own and Diotima's speaking parts. As the dialogue unfolds we see Diotima not only teaching Socrates about love but also about wisdom, beauty, and the good. These ideas are often under study by Socrates throughout the Platonic dialogues. Diotima uses analogies to promote understanding and discussion as the means for discovery and understanding. She appears to have a significant influence on Socrates and teaches him well. This paper will briefly discuss what Diotima taught Socrates and its significance regarding his wisdom. This paper also explores how Diotima's voice and identity were taken from her, in the fifteenth century, when she became a fictional character (Mialone, 1997). Philosopher and educator Alan Bloom, for example, quickly and decidedly states that Diotima was not a real person in his commentary on the Symposium. Just a few sentences later he describes this section of the Symposium as a turning point in Socrates by saying: "This is one of several passages in Plato where Socrates describes how he stopped being a pre-Socratic philosopher...and became the Socrates we know" (Bloom, 1993, p.129). This paper concludes with evidence of Diotima's existence and her influence on ancient Philosophy.
This paper discusses the myriad of pedagogy enacted and/or discussed by Socrates within Plato's d... more This paper discusses the myriad of pedagogy enacted and/or discussed by Socrates within Plato's dialogues. Methodologies including dialectics, elaboration by example, allegories, analogies, imagery, story telling, recollection, and thoughtful inquiry scattered throughout the dialogues. Educators spend time on "the what" of teaching while "the how" to engage, enlighten, and nurture the love of learning and desire to know is often ignored. This paper provides explicit examples of Socrates teaching and connects his pedagogy to present-day instructional strategies that promote relevance and meaning within the context of contemporary teaching and learning.
Forum on Public Policy a Journal of the Oxford Round Table, Jun 22, 2007
Within the text of Plato's Symposium (Jowett, 1975) a dialogue on love takes place. When it is So... more Within the text of Plato's Symposium (Jowett, 1975) a dialogue on love takes place. When it is Socrates turn to speak he defers to Diotima, his teacher. He tells of her wisdom and shares what she taught him. To present his argument he recounts their conversations by reenacting their dialogues and taking both his own and Diotima's speaking parts. As the dialogue unfolds we see Diotima not only teaching Socrates about love but also about wisdom, beauty, and the good. These ideas are often under study by Socrates throughout the Platonic dialogues. Diotima uses analogies to promote understanding and discussion as the means for discovery and understanding. She appears to have a significant influence on Socrates and teaches him well. This paper will briefly discuss what Diotima taught Socrates and its significance regarding his wisdom. This paper also explores how Diotima's voice and identity were taken from her, in the fifteenth century, when she became a fictional character (Mialone, 1997). Philosopher and educator Alan Bloom, for example, quickly and decidedly states that Diotima was not a real person in his commentary on the Symposium. Just a few sentences later he describes this section of the Symposium as a turning point in Socrates by saying: "This is one of several passages in Plato where Socrates describes how he stopped being a pre-Socratic philosopher...and became the Socrates we know" (Bloom, 1993, p.129). This paper concludes with evidence of Diotima's existence and her influence on ancient Philosophy.
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Papers by Lynda George