The Student in Plato’s Socrates
12.00–1.30pm | Friday, February 20
Elm Library, 31 Whitney Avenue
Socrates is almost always read as a teacher, and yet he famously denied being one. Taking this denial seriously invites a reconsideration of whether his activity is best understood as the instruction of others. What if Plato’s Socrates is read not as a model teacher of virtue, politics, citizenship, or even skepticism, but as a model student? Plato’s dialogues invite us to reflect on what it means to call someone a teacher or a student, the limits and responsibilities of each, and the role of humility in pedagogy.
Stephanie Almeida Nevin is the Executive Director of the Yale Center for Civic Thought and a Lecturer in Humanities
This event is open to all members of the Yale community. Lunch will be served.
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What sort of man am I? One of those who would happily be refuted if I say anything false, and happy to refute if someone were to say something false, and not, however, less happy to be refuted than to refute.
—Socrates in Plato’s Gorgias