10 Workshop Six: Justice and Education in the Republic
10 Workshop Six: Justice and Education in the Republic
DOWNLOAD WORKSHOP 6 HERE
Part I: General Instructions & Introductions (10 minutes)
For this workshop, you will be organized in a Zoom Breakout Room with a group of four to five students. If you have any questions or concerns, please send a message via Zoom asking for help. I’ll join you as soon as possible.
Please begin today by checking in with one another and looking over the workshop. This is a dense workshop that will demand your focused attention. Appoint a timekeeper and a scribe.
The workshop today includes a 10-minute break. We will take a second 10-minute break after reconvening to the main Zoom room. Please note the start time of your small-group work and the time when we will reconvene.
II. The Platonic Form (15 mins.)
- On a piece of paper, draw four different triangles, making them differ in both size and shape.
- Write down the definition of a triangle.
- Can you draw a picture which represents exactly what is represented in the definition of “triangle”? If so, draw it. If not, explain why it can’t be done.
- Let us call the four pictures you drew “images” of triangularity and the definition you wrote a representation of “true” triangularity. Is there such thing as the “true” triangle? Is it real? If so, where is the true triangle?
- Assume the “true” triangle is real. What might be the relationship that exists between it and your four images? What kind of correspondence exists between image and reality?
- Suppose you wanted to know the true triangle? What might you do to know it, or encounter it?
III. How to Perceive the Forms (or, Does Socrates have a Growth Mindset?) (20 min.)
In her 2007 book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck introduced the model of Growth vs. Fixed mindsets. The two mindsets are illustrated by Dweck’s diagram, here. Please briefly discuss Dweck’s model and develop a working definition of “Growth Mindset” and “Fixed Mindset.”
Next, please discuss the following passages to determine whether you think Socrates supports a Growth or Fixed Mindset, or if you see a shift between the “Socratic” Socrates of the shorter dialogues and the “Platonic” Socrates of the Republic.
- “…one individual is by nature quite unlike another individual, that they differ in their natural aptitudes, and that different people are equipped to perform different tasks” (Republic Book II, 370b)
- “…they should assign each individual to the one task he is naturally fitted for…” (Republic Book IV, 423d).
- about the slave learning/”recollecting” geometry in Meno: “So he is now in a better position with regard to the matter he does not know? I agree with that too … Indeed, we have probably achieved something relevant to finding out how matters stand … Has he then benefitted from being numbed? I think so.” (Meno; 84b-c)
- “…we will be better men, braver and less idle, if we believe that one must search for the things one does not know…” (Meno; 86c).
Do you think Socrates prom