philosopher. See Thomas H. Chance,Plato’s Euthydemus: Analysis of What Is and Is Not Philosophy
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
20 See Augustine,The Confessions, R.S. Pinecoffin, trans. (London: Penguin, 1961), III.3.6. Sophistic debate
is commonly called“eristic”because of its association with Eris, the Greek goddess of strife. Eristic speech
is quarrelsome or contentious debate; it is a form of verbal battle in which rivals in a contest (agon) compete
for victory.
21 R.G. Collingwood,An Essay on Philosophic Method(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), 13, 14.
22 Josef Pieper,In Defense of Philosophy: Classical Wisdom Stands up to Modern Challenges, Lothar
Krauth, trans. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1966), 41.
23 Pieper views the selfishness of the sophist and the selflessness of the philosopher as the best way of truly
distinguishing between their two characters. The Sophist looks exactly like a philosopher. He speaks
exactly like a philosopher. In fact, it could be said he resembles a true philosopher much more than the
philosopher himself. In other words: it has been made extremely easy not to recognize the decisive
difference. The difference consists in this: the true philosopher, thoroughly oblivious of his own impor-
tance, and“totally discarding all pretentiousness,”approaches his unfathomable object unselfishly and
with an open mind. The contemplation of this object, in turn, transports the subject beyond mere self-
centered satisfaction and indeed releases him from the fixation on selfish needs, no matter how“intellec-
tual”or sublime. The Sophist, in contrast, despite his emancipation from the norms of“objective”truth and
the resulting claims to be“free,”remains nevertheless imprisoned within the narrow scope of what is
“useable.’See Pieper,In Defense of Philosophy,38–9.
24 Ego de didaskalos men oudenos popot’egenomen. Plato,Apology, 33a.
25 hoti he anthropine sophia oligou tinos axia estin kai oudenos. Ibid., 23a.
26 Ibid., 21d.
27 Carrie Winstanley,“Philosophy and the Development of Critical Thinking,”inPhilosophy in Schools,94–5.
28 Josef Pieper,“On the Platonic Idea of Philosophy,”inFor the Love of Wisdom: Essays on the Nature of
Philosophy, Roger Wasserman, trans. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995), 161.
29 Pieper,“A Plea for Philosophy,”inFor the Love of Wisdom, 91; cf. Pieper,In Defense of Philosophy, 23.
30 Pieper,In Defense of Philosophy, 23.
31 For more details, refer to Steel,The Pursuit of Wisdom and Happiness in Education; see Sean Steel,“Oil
and Water: Assessment and the Pursuit of Wisdom,”inThe Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Developing
Te a c h e r’s Assessment Literacy within Cross-Cultural Contexts, Kim Koh, Cecile DePass, and Sean Steel eds.
(Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, forthcoming).
32 I use the word“totalitarian”here purposefully. Pieper writes about our culture as one of“total work”; that
is, it is one that overvalues work and is adamantly opposed to (and in fact, set upon the destruction of)
leisure. His discussion of the Soviet“five-year plans”and their attempts to“order everything”along with
their claim to“provide the exclusive value standards for all aspects of life”strikes me as remarkably similar
to the way that school boards and the government envision“accountability”in education. For an excellent
discussion in which the totalitarian urge manifests itself in liberal democratic societies, see Josef Pieper,
“Leisure and its Threefold Opposition,”inJosef Pieper: An Anthology(San Francisco: Ignatius Press,
1981), 137–43.
33 Aristotle,Nicomachean Ethics,inThe Basic Works, Richard McKeon, ed. (New York: Modern Library,
2001), X.vii.8. In theSymposium, Socrates recounts Diotima saying much the same thing:“it is in
contemplating (theomenoi) the Beautiful Itself (auto to kalon)”that“human life is to be lived,”for only
“when a human being looks (blepontos)thereand contemplates (theomenou)thatwith that by which one
must contemplate it, and be with it”that true virtue is begotten in him, making him“dear to god”
(theophilei), and“if any other among men is immortal (athanato), he is too.”Plato,Symposium, 212a.
34 Plato,Phaedrus, 248d.
35 Aristotle,Metaphysics, I.ii.10;982b18.
36 As a positive side note, I can say with equal, experiential, and anecdotal confidence that students in high
school are generally more open to philosophy and philosophizing than are pre-service teachers. For more,
see Sean Steel,“On the High School Education of a Pithecanthropus Erectus,”The High School Journal
98/1 (2014b): 5–21; see Sean Steel,“Shamanic Daughters, Three-Minute Records, and‘Deaducation’in
Schools,”Interchange45/1 (2014c): 1–17.
37 Aristotle,Metaphysics, 980a22.
38 Pierre Hadot,Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault, Arnold I.
Davidson, ed., Michael Chase, trans. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1995); see Pierre Hadot,What is
Ancient Philosophy?Michael Chase, trans. (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2002).
39 Anonymous,The Cloud of Unknowing, James Walsh, ed. (Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press, 1981), XLII.
122 Sean Steel