From today’s perspective, Socrates’ views on education and learning are, to put it mildly, unorthodox. Why? Because they don’t rely on the written word as a principal source for gaining knowledge and wisdom.
Nowadays, teachers complain that students spend too much time watching videos and chatting on social media, and that as a result, they don’t acquire the ability to read complex texts and analyse complex chains of thought.
I fully agree with the criticism, but I must point out that, if we trust Plato’s “Phaedrus,” Socrates did not hold written texts in high regard. He preferred teaching by means of dialogue, so that the student could ask questions and gain wisdom through the exchanges with the teacher.
Socrates’ method possesses large cost disadvantages. If each student, or small group of students, needs a teacher to reply to all their questions in real time, I fear that schools would have to hire a million teachers, rendering education unaffordable.
I am also sceptical of Socrates’ presupposition that learning must start with the acknowledgement of one’s ignorance. I fail to see the point of conducting a ritual of declaring ignorance. It should be sufficient if the student turns up for the lesson, ready to listen to the teacher, take notes, and learn the material.
Ignorance as the starting point
Plato’s “Apology” contains, in section 21d-e, the all-famous quotation from Socrates, in which he declares himself wiser on the basis of his willingness to acknowledge his ignorance; he is declaring himself wiser than people who pretend to know what they don’t know.
I have seen distortions of this quotation, where people claim to be wise because they know nothing. Of course, that does not make any sense. The problem arises from the translations from Ancient Greek, where the word “wiser” has been employed.
Socrates did not really become wiser by acknowledging his ignorance. If I say that I do not know anything about baseball, my statement does not make me any more knowledgeable than I was before I uttered it. That’s why I think that one should not employ the word “wiser” in this context.
I would recommend using the terms “more sensible” or “more reasonable.” If I know nothing about the stock market, it is more sensible of me to acknowledge my ignorance than to pretend that I am an expert investor.
Except in rare situations that would invert the principle, it is more reasonable to tell the truth because, if I misrepresent the facts, I might generate damages for myself or for other people.
Socrates did little to avert confusion between ignorance and wisdom because, in Plato’s “Apology,” he said that the Oracle of Delphi had confirmed that nobody in the world was wiser than Socrates.
He actually meant “sensible” or “reasonable,” not “wise.” In the acknowledgement of Socrates’ ignorance, there was no gain of material knowledge, neither for Socrates nor for anyone else in his surroundings.
Dialogue instead of text
One could praise Socrates for being truthful, modest, loyal to his friends, sensible and realistic, but those moral virtues do not suffice to build an education system. They don’t guarantee that students will learn anything and may instead grant them an excuse to neglect their studies.
If one follows Socrates’ recipes for education and learning, I have serious doubts that the result will prove beneficial. Who’s willing to spend large sums of money for hiring one teacher for each student, or small student group, so that they can practise Socratic questioning? And who is going to impose the demand of declaring one’s ignorance before the start of each lesson?
Some universities, in particular law schools, claim to have adopted the Socratic method in their classrooms, but what they do is far away from what Socrates did. If they engage in back and forth questioning during the classroom, it is because they have previously asked the students to study the material, read the bibliography, and prepare an outline of their position.
The idea that a teacher would take students for a walk, like Socrates had done in “Phaedrus,” to discuss new subjects, and enlighten them with new knowledge, seems overly impractical. Can you imagine what it would take to learn mathematics if we adopt Socrates’ method?
Remembering and giving birth
To make things worse, Socrates was convinced that learning means remembering. He assumed that, when someone gains a new insight, such as the ability to perform some calculation, he is actually remembering something that he already knew.
It’s as though humans already knew everything by means of some magical connection, and the teacher only needed to help them remember. Socrates’ conception is ludicrous and does not deserve further consideration. Luckily, it doesn’t play a central role in his philosophy.
In any case, Socrates regarded the educational and learning process as “giving birth” intellectually to new ideas. In Plato’s dialogue “Theaetetus,” Socrates compared his philosophising to the tasks of a midwife; she helps bring children to the world, in the same way as Socrates helps students gain new insights.
Socrates’ midwifery comparison is compelling, especially to people who love philosophical conversations, but is erroneous. Midwives help bring the baby into the world, but the baby was pre-existent. They did not create the baby themselves.
In contrast, learning aims at gaining knowledge that was not present in the student’s mind. It doesn’t matter whether the new material is absorbed from reading books, watching videos, or debating with the teacher. In any case, the student’s mind will acquire insights that were previously absent.
The allegory of the cave
Despite his approximate understanding of the education and learning process, Socrates was highly enthusiastic about it. In Plato’s Republic, book VII, he introduced the allegory of the cave, in which ignorant individuals are compared to prisoners trapped in a cave, unable to perceive the world outside.
All they know about the outside world consists of distorted shadows projected on the cave’s wall. Even if the prisoners talk endlessly about the shadows, they can only guess or speculate. Education is the means to set the prisoners free because it will enable them to see the world as it really is.
My assessment of Socrates’ views on education and learning must be complemented by placing Socrates in the context of Ancient Greece. He did not figure out the correct answers, but his theories were far superior than those of his predecessors.
I view the Socratic method as a breakthrough in philosophy, because it dared to search for truth, more than a breakthrough in education. Unless one can afford to hire a full time tutor for one’s children, Socrates’ preference for extended dialogues is destined to remain a complement to traditional teaching, not a substitute.