With your host - The Oracle of Delphi. Socrates Sussed!

With your host - The Oracle of Delphi

Socrates

Sussed!

SOCRATES

Principles of adult learning

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance

The unexamined life is not worth living

Socrates engages would be learners in elenctic argument to make them aware of their own ignorance and enable them to discover for themselves the truth the teacher had held back.

Nehams, A. (1998) The Art of Living. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California p. 63

Historical background

• Born 470 BC• Lived during Golden Age of Greece• Serves with valour in Peloponnesian War• Married, 8 children• Declared wisest man by Oracle at Delphi• Is put on trial

Socrates Method In Action

Hero Hemlocked!

Group Questions

1. What might be a possible questioning path for Socrates if the youth’s situation was complicated by the fact that it was a friend who offered to sell him the chariot?

2. ‘I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.’ Why do you think that this was a basis for Socrates’ teaching methods?

3. ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ How do you think this fits into teaching methodology today?

4. What do you believe is the difference between a teacher and a student?

5. What value do you think society places on education and learning?

6. What advantages and disadvantages do you associate with the Socratic teaching method?

Visible

IntelligibleThe Form Of Beauty

‘Dialectic’

The Manifestation

of Beauty

Beautiful Entities‘What a beautiful

vase!’

The Imitation of

Beauty

Paintings, Photos etc

‘It looks just like the real thing!’

IntelligenceKnowledge

The ‘Good’Intellection, Reason

Understanding Thinking

‘Mathematical’ Ideas

BeliefTangible Objects

Imagining

Reflections Conjecture

The Concept Of Beauty

ReferencesImages sourced from:Slide 2 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Socrates_teaching.jpgSlide 3 http://flowstate.homestead.com/socrates.html Slide 4http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Socrates_and_Xanthippe.jpg