Abstract
Several key lines concerning the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades, extracted from the Symposium and the Alcibiades 1, are discussed for the purpose of detecting the epistemic value that Plato attributed to eros in his new model of education. As result of this analysis, I argue for the philosophical significance of the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades as a clear example – even when failed – of the epistemic role of eros in the dialogically extended knowledge.
Highlights
Philosophical education: the teacher as a mirrorPlato’s strategy did not consist in denying the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades, rather it attributes to it a new and reformed meaning, the one of a philosophical education
Σωκράτους δὲ κατηγορεῖν ἐπιχειρήσας, ὥσπερ ἐγκωμιάσαι βουλόμενος Ἀλκιβιάδην ἔδωκας αὐτῷ μαθητήν, ὃν ὑπἐκείνου μὲν οὐδεὶς ᾔσθετο παιδευόμενον, ὅτι δὲ πολὺ διήνεγκε τῶν ἄλλων ἅπαντες ἂν ὁμολογήσειαν
Isocrates denies the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades, saying that Alcibiades never was taught by Socrates
Summary
Plato’s strategy did not consist in denying the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades, rather it attributes to it a new and reformed meaning, the one of a philosophical education. The true teacher should be a lover – as for paiderastia – but a true lover, the one who takes care of the beloved soul, and who does not fear to challenge the student’s false beliefs With this line of argument, Plato builds up the epistemic value of eros at the core of the very practice of philosophy, as a dialogical inquiry for knowing thyself. The failure should not be ascribed to the Socratic method but to the ethos of Socrates’ students This defense is made stronger by the philosophical account of epistemic love, since Plato will show that Alcibiades’ fault consists in not having understood the aims of Socrates’ teachings
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