The Socratic Method Today Student-Centered and Transformative Teaching in Political Science

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40 Plato,Phaedo, 64a.
41 Pieper,In Defense of Philosophy, 38.
42 Ibid., 39.
43 James V. Schall,“Liberal Education,”Liberal Education92/4 (2006): 46.
44 One is reminded here of the ancient sophists who charged a fee for their instruction versus the philosopher
Socrates who spoke with anyone at no charge. Indeed, the reason Socrates was so poor was because he
knew that there was something beyond riches. Schall writes helpfully about the relation between the
genuine teacher-philosopher and his pocketbook:“Properly speaking:::. teachers cannot be paid for
what they teach. For what they teach, if it is true, is not theirs. They do not own it. They did not make it
or make it to be true. This fact is why any financial arrangement with a true teacher:::is not a salary or a
wage but an‘honorarium,’something offered merely to keep the teacher alive, not to‘pay’him for
ownership of a segment of‘truth’said to be exclusively his. What he who teaches knows, then, is known
for its own sake, not for his sake–even when the knowing is, as it should be, his. Truth is not like private
property, something we should own and cherish. Rather it is something that, when passed from teacher to
pupil, makes both something more and neither any less:::. The motivation of the teacher has to be
something intrinsic, some‘love of wisdom’for itself:::. Besides, teachers do not need much in the
way of material goods, as their delight is really not to be found in financial rewards; if a teacher does seek
wealth, his teaching is suspect.”See James V. Schall,“On the Mystery of Teachers I Never Met,”inOn the
Unseriousness of Human Affairs: Teaching, Writing, Playing, Believing, Lecturing, Philosophizing, Sing-
ing, Dancing(Wilmington: ISI Books, 2001), 64.
45 St. John of the Cross,The Ascent of Mount Carmel, E. Allison Peers, trans. (Mineola: Dover Publications,
2008).
46 Plato,Protagoras, 318e.
47 Pieper,“A Plea for Philosophy,”97.
48 Winstanley,“Philosophy and the Development of Critical Thinking,”95.
49 Thomas Aquinas,Summa Theologica, Jordan Aumann, trans. (London: Blackfriars, 1966), 2a2ae.180.6.
Whereas the discursive movements of theratiomay be evaluated for their aptitude, the circular movement
calms these learning priorities, seeking their effective cessation. Whereas reasoning and typical classroom
thinking involves the measurement and“progression”of rational capacities to certain skill sets in thinking
and cognitive development, the circular movement of the soul cannot be so evaluated, because by its nature
it is separate from all discursive thought and therefore“free of error.”Indeed, the circular movement has no
measure other than that in which it participates by pursuing wisdom in contemplative gazing.


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