Plato, the Poets, and the Philosophical Turn in the Relationship Between Teaching, Learning, and Suffering

Studies in Philosophy and Education 41 (3):259-271 (2022)
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Abstract

Greek literature prior to Plato featured two conceptions of education. Learning takes place when people encounter “teacher-guides”—educators, mentors, and advisors. But education also occurs outside of a pedagogical relationship between learner and teacher-guide: people learn through painful experience. In composing his dramatic dialogues, Plato appropriated these two conceptions of education, refashioning and fusing them to present a new philosophical conception of learning: Plato’s Socrates is a teacher-guide who causes his interlocutors to learn through suffering. Socrates, however, is not presented straightforwardly as a pedagogical success story. Socrates’ failures are, paradoxically, part of what makes him an ideal literary model for a philosophical teacher-guide. Plato requires his readers to question why Socrates’ interlocutors are not converted to philosophers.

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Cratylus. Plato - 1997 - In J. M. Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works. Hackett. pp. 101--156.
The Play of Character in Plato's Dialogues.Ruby Blondell - 2002 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

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