tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post4545465762833739476..comments2024-03-14T04:16:20.472-07:00Comments on In Socrates' Wake: An Instant Classic?Michael Cholbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02012523929044363216noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-88806518077642634992011-09-10T16:32:54.354-07:002011-09-10T16:32:54.354-07:00Anonymous: I agree, or at least I think I do. I wo...Anonymous: I agree, or at least I think I do. I wouldn't ask students to choose between taking or leaving the whole thing. Rather, I try to get them to think about how much of it they agree with (and why), and then why someone as intelligent and thoughtful as Plato might have thought the rest of it was true too. So, yes, "how could a human being believe this?" but specifically "how could Plato believe this?" and "how much of it can you believe (and on what grounds)?"Duncan Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708344766825805406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-79363123493409920292011-09-09T16:37:18.268-07:002011-09-09T16:37:18.268-07:00I'm not sure "is this worth believing in&...I'm not sure "is this worth believing in" is the right question to ask. I'd paraphrase the main question driving my own philosophy teaching as "Can you see how a human being could believe this?" For me the teaching drives toward a kind of constructive empathy, rather than an attempt to judge things as true or false. I assume any student who takes the constructive empathy seriously will as a matter of course make use of the insights gained when "figuring life out for themselves" (either now or later on) but it seems to me the fairly obvious answer to the question "is this worth believing in" for almost any specific view of Plato's is "for me, today, a citizen of the US in the 21st century?! Of course not!" To ask the question in any central way, then, misses whatever is of value in the text.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-55598832734990683432011-09-09T05:48:34.461-07:002011-09-09T05:48:34.461-07:00Agreed. I think he hits the nail on the head as fa...Agreed. I think he hits the nail on the head as far as where people tend to focus their energy and why they do so. Everyone generally behaves rationally, and none of the major incentives encourages a focus on education.Duncan Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708344766825805406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-38866649297912279152011-09-08T20:26:07.383-07:002011-09-08T20:26:07.383-07:00DR - I'm with you. Certainly there are some in...DR - I'm with you. Certainly there are some instructors (of Plato and other topics) that ask students what's worth believing in. Still, I think Edmundson is correct in diagnosing a certain detachment in higher education pedagogy.Michael Cholbihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02012523929044363216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-13170269965333330072011-09-08T06:31:57.836-07:002011-09-08T06:31:57.836-07:00My expectations were raised so high by your recomm...My expectations were raised so high by your recommendation that, paradoxically, I thought I was going to be disappointed. But at first I shared your enthusiasm for the essay. Then I got to the end and was disappointed. Dedicated teachers, however great they may be, cannot expect to be paid to travel around the world lecturing. It's true that doing what you love can pay. At my school the wealthiest alumni are the former English majors, because many of them go on to become lawyers. So studying Emerson rather than Business can pay off. But this isn't the reason to study Emerson, surely.<br /><br />And what about this: "When you read Plato, you’ll probably learn about his metaphysics and his politics and his way of conceiving the soul. But no one will ask you if his ideas are good enough to believe in"? Really? That's the main thing I do (after trying to make sure the students understand what his ideas are, of course). And I really don't think I'm at all unusual in this. <br /><br />Otherwise, I agree, this is a powerful essay.Duncan Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708344766825805406noreply@blogger.com