10) The Philosophic Education (I)

Political Philosophy
Course: An Introduction to Plato’s Republic
Class 10: The Philosophic Education (I)

Professor: Jonathan Culp, Ph.D., Director of International Studies & Associate Professor, University of Dallas

Course Description:
The purpose of this class is to introduce students to Socratic-Platonic political philosophy through a careful study of Plato’s most comprehensive work, the Republic. Commonly known as a book outlining a political utopia, Plato’s Republic is in truth a comprehensive reflection on the nature of the human soul, its longing for justice, and its place within the whole. The Republic is also complex, elusive, and often outrageous. In the course of reading the Republic, we shall consider many of the crucial questions it presents to us: What is justice? Is it good to be just? What is the best form of government? the best education? the best way of life? What are the obstacles in the way of these things? What is truth and how do we find it? We will read the Republic slowly and carefully and contemplate Plato’s responses to these questions.

Class 10:
This is the first of two classes devoted to Socrates’ discussion of how to educate a philosopher (in Republic VI and VII). Dr. Culp first discusses Socrates account of the Idea of the Good, noting the curious way that this idea seems to be both a practical goal and a metaphysical principle. He then turns to an analysis of three of the most famous images in the history of philosophy: the Sun, the Divided Line, and the Cave. Dr. Culp discusses the nature of education according to the allegory of the Cave: liberation from the prison of ignorance through a dialectical turning of the entire soul toward truth and being.