Education and Argument in Ancient Philosophy by Laura Aline Ward Department of Classical ...

233 Pages·2011·0.92 MB·English

Philosophical Allurements: Education and Argument in Ancient Philosophy
by
Laura Aline Ward
Department of Classical Studies
Duke University
Date:_______________________
Approved:
___________________________
J. Peter Euben, Supervisor
___________________________
Diskin Clay
___________________________
N. Gregson G. Davis
___________________________
Micaela W. Janan
___________________________
William A. Johnson
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of
Classical Studies in the Graduate School
of Duke University
2011
ABSTRACT
Philosophical Allurements: Education and Argument in Ancient Philosophy
by
Laura Aline Ward
Department of Classical Studies
Duke University
Date:_______________________
Approved:
___________________________
J. Peter Euben, Supervisor
___________________________
Diskin Clay
___________________________
N. Gregson G. Davis
___________________________
Micaela W. Janan
___________________________
William A. Johnson
An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of
Classical Studies in the Graduate School
of Duke University
2011
Copyright by
Laura Aline Ward
2011
Abstract
This dissertation investigates how recognition of Plato’s Republic as a
pedagogical text and of the milieu of competing disciplines in which it composed
suggests new readings of its philosophical content. I contend that close attention to the
cultural context in which the Republic was written reveals the degree to which its
arguments were constructed not only with an eye towards the philosophical demands put
upon it, but also in response to the claims of epistemological authority made by other
fields. Furthermore, I show that close attention to the pedagogical function of the text
reveals the degree to which Plato relies upon the dialogue’s characters and figurative
language to entice students away from alternative pursuits and world-views and towards
Platonic philosophy.
The Republic was constructed in a revolutionary period for both texts and
teachers, in which texts were beginning to function as a kind of tutor. In my first chapter,
“Educating Athens”, I survey the changing Athenian attitudes towards education from the
sixth to the fourth centuries BCE, with a special focus on the rise of the concept of
paideia. I also consider some of the ways in which earlier scholars have regarded the
Republic as a prescriptive text on education in order to distinguish their approaches from
my own: unlike these earlier readings, my approach to the text is to regard it as itself
educating the reader, rather than as describing a system of education. The development
of systems of paideia is intimately connected to the phenomena discussed in my second
chapter: the rise of disciplines and the explosion of the written word. I conduct a
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historical survey of the evidence for literacy and texts in the seventh to fourth centuries
BCE and show that the gradual increase in texts and literacy did not replace oral culture
in Athens, but rather supplemented it. I point out striking similarities among medical
texts, oratorical works, and the Socratic dialogues written by Plato’s contemporaries as a
basis for comparison with Plato’s Republic.
In the final three chapters of my dissertation I examine three aspects of Plato’s
Republic which have presented problems for envisioning the Republic as a unified work.
My third chapter examines the Socratic interlocutors of book one as negative models for
the reader, and shows that by the end of the book Plato has demonstrated the importance
of passion, creativity, and deference in the successful philosophical student. As well, I
suggest that Plato deliberately shows the weaknesses of the elenchus in the first book in
order to argue against the methodologies of his fellow authors of Socratic dialogues, and
in order to showcase the new philosophical methods which he displays in the remainder
of the Republic. In the fourth chapter I continue to emphasize the relationship between
the philosophy of the Republic and the work’s pedagogical mission by examining the
“two starts” to the Republic at the beginning of book 2 and book 5. I show that important
work is done in books 2-4 to prepare the reader for the radical reevaluation of knowledge
that will come in books 5-7 In the fifth chapter I consider the use of stories within the
Republic, and what such stories can tell us both about Plato’s theories of how education
occurs as well as about how the Republic is meant to function.
Ultimately my dissertation demonstrates that by locating the Republic within the
intersection of competing pedagogies, new disciplines, and the recent rise of texts, the
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text can be understood as functioning on a number of different levels. It dismisses the
merits of other disciplines and privileges Plato over other philosophers, all within the
structure of a work which is gradually molding and guiding its reader towards Plato’s
particular ethical and epistemological system. Although the Republic has been read as a
work on ethics, on political philosophy, and on psychology, its disparate components and
topics coalesce only by reading it first as a work which educates.
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For Michael and Mary Ward,
who first believed in me,
and J.P. Lien,
who made me believe in myself
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Table of Contents
Abstract...............................................................................................................................iv
Abbreviations.....................................................................................................................xii
Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................xiv
Introduction..........................................................................................................................1
Philosophical Conversion ...............................................................................................1
Plato’s Dialogues.............................................................................................................3
The Project......................................................................................................................6
1. Educating Athens..........................................................................................................11
1.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................11
1.2 The Language of Education ...................................................................................12
1.3 Studying Athenian Education..................................................................................15
1.4 Learning to be Athenian..........................................................................................25
1.5 Plato's Theory of Education ...................................................................................30
2. Texts and Fourth Century Athens...................................................................................39
2.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................39
2.2 Texts in Fifth Century Athens.................................................................................40
2.2.1 The Written and Spoken Word........................................................................42
2.3 The Rise of Disciplines...........................................................................................49
2.4 Teaching With Texts................................................................................................55
2.4.1 Teaching with Medical Texts...........................................................................60
2.4.2 Teaching How to Speak...................................................................................65
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2.4.3 Teaching with Philosophical Texts..................................................................74
3. Beginning the Republic.................................................................................................85
3.1 Pedagogy in the Republic .......................................................................................85
3.1.1 The Republic as a Pedagogical Work..............................................................91
3.2 Problems in Book 1: the Students...........................................................................95
3.2.1 The Right Students: Glaucon and Adeimantus................................................97
3.2.2 The Wrong Student: Cephalus.......................................................................101
3.2.3 The Wrong Student: Polemarchus.................................................................107
3.2.4 The Wrong Student: Thrasymachus...............................................................110
3.3 Problems in Book 1: the Method...........................................................................118
4. A Positive Pedagogy – Books 2 and 5........................................................................124
4.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................124
4.2 Two New Beginnings for the Republic.................................................................126
4.2.1 Book 2...........................................................................................................128
4.2.2 Book 5...........................................................................................................137
4.3 Two Educational Programs...................................................................................141
4.3.1 The Program of Books 2-4: Adeimantus.......................................................141
4.3.2 The Program of Books 2-4: Glaucon.............................................................148
4.3.3 The Waves of Book 5....................................................................................151
4.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................157
5. Speaking in Images – Lies, Myths, and Allegories......................................................159
5.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................159
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5.1.1 Mythos vs. Logos?.........................................................................................161
5.1.2 Mythos in Plato..............................................................................................167
5.2.1 Case Study One: The Myth of the Metals..........................................................172
5.2.2 Case Study Two: Mapping the Sun, Line, and Cave..........................................180
5.2.3 Case Study Three: The Myth of Er....................................................................188
5.3 Conclusion.............................................................................................................198
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................199
Bibliography....................................................................................................................205
Biography.........................................................................................................................218
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