Plato

About the Course

PLATO - THE SOCRATIC METHOD AND THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE

8 Lectures and Discussions

Plato presents philosophy not in dogmatic treatises but in the form of discussions and conversations in which great philosophic questions are examined in a lively and interactive manner among characters with whom we can readily identify. In conversation with the young Theaetetus Socrates explores the nature of his own philosophic mission and he exemplifies and explains his famous Socratic method of approaching philosophy through question and answer. He states that he himself knows nothing and has nothing to teach and compares himself to a philosophic midwife who can help others bring forth ideas but has no ideas of his own.

This of course leads to the question 'what is knowledge?' and as we life in a society which greatly values knowledge and uses phrases such as:

• Knowledge is power
• This is a knowledge society
• Knowledge is relative
• Advances in knowledge....

With Socrates, we can step back from the cliches of modern debate and explore great universal philosophic questions in the true spirit of enquiry and come to understand that in truth:

"Philosophy begins in wonder..."

Plato's Theaetetus.