“Let’s Look at What We Said”: The Figure of Socrates as Antithesis to the Commodification of Higher Education

“Let’s Look at What We Said”: The Figure of Socrates as Antithesis to the Commodification of Higher Education

Oral - Theoretical Proposal

In Plato’s writings, Socrates stands as the exemplar of wise teaching. However, Socrates often uses uncomfortable or offensive methods to bring his students face-to-face with their own lack of understanding, so that the person who ultimately confronts them is themselves. I challenge the ideals that drive the commodification of academia in the modern university and explore the pedagogy of Socrates as it can be applied within current educational philosophy. Drawing on Euthyphro and Phaedrus, both of which highlight Socrates as he pushes a student forward to catch their own glimpse of wisdom, I argue that in order to seek a truly beneficial education, a student must sacrifice more than the simple price of tuition. The professor, in turn, must abstain from apedagogy that rests solely on the conveyance of memorized information; instead, a teacher should create situations in which a student must come to an independent awareness of their own lack of wisdom, despite the uncomfortable nature of such a realization. In an age of both excess information and unchecked commodification, the importance of cultivating a love of wisdom within students is more important than ever before, and to truly teach is to help students see the fruits of vulnerability within the uncomfortable stretching practices of the pursuit of wisdom.