Society, Opportunity, and Consensus

A philosophy of education is not only about the inner life of a single learner. It is also about how that learner fits into a society, who gets access to learning, and how a group of people who disagree can still live together. Socrates had answers to all three questions, and his answers were unfashionable in his time.

The purpose of society

Socrates believed that no individual is fully self-sufficient. A human being needs other humans: for food, for trade, for protection, for company, for raising the young. Society exists because of that need.

He noticed, second, that societies give rise to class systems. The reasons are practical at first: different people do different work, and the work has different status. The classes then harden over time and become inherited. The Athens Socrates lived in had a steep class structure: aristocrats at the top, ordinary citizens in the middle, and many people (slaves, foreigners, women) excluded from full participation.

He had a clear view of what society was for. Society exists to provide the best life for individuals. The Athenian aristocratic society of his day did this for some of its members and failed others completely. Socrates accepted the purpose but criticised the failure.

Flashcard

Why does society exist, on Socrates' view?

Tap to reveal

Answer

To provide the best life for individuals

Individuals are not self-sufficient. They need others for food, trade, protection, and the raising of the young. Society is not an end in itself; it is the structure that makes an individual life possible.

Where education happens

Formal education in ancient Greece took place in famous public buildings. The Parthenon and the Hephaisteion in Athens were not only temples; they were sites of formal instruction. But only the privileged got in. The doors were closed to women, to the children of the poor, and to slaves.

Socrates held a different view. He believed education takes place everywhere, at all times. Not only in fancy buildings. Not only in scheduled lessons. The marketplace was a school. A long walk with a friend was a school. A trial in the law courts was a school. Anywhere two minds could meet around a question, education was happening.

This is one of the reasons his method scaled outside the institutions of his time. It did not need a building, a uniform, or a fee.

Flashcard

Where, according to Socrates, does education take place?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Everywhere, at all times

Not only in famous buildings. Not only in scheduled classes. Any time two minds meet around a real question, education is happening. The marketplace, the trial, the long walk all count.

Equal opportunity for education

Socrates’ theory of opportunity follows directly. He rejected the elitist mentality of his fellow Athenians and rejected the narrow conception of the pursuit of knowledge that most aristocratic individuals followed.

In their view, deep learning was for a few. Most people needed only the basics required to do their work and obey their betters. Socrates thought this view was both untrue and unjust.

His positive position had two parts:

1. He wanted to educate everyone, not just the aristocrats. Knowledge of how to live a human life is not a privilege of the rich. It is the birthright of every human being.
2. He believed that the education of women was as important as the education of men. This was a startling claim in a society where women’s public life was severely limited.

His view of equal opportunity was bound to his view of human nature. If every person has a divine inner self with access to truth, then withholding education from some people is denying their humanity. The economic arguments for excluding women and the poor from learning fell apart in front of the moral argument.

Flashcard

Whom did Socrates want to include in education?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Everyone, including women

He rejected the elitist view that deep learning was for aristocrats only. He believed women’s education was as important as men’s. His view followed from his theory of human nature.

How consensus is achieved

Wherever two or more people meet, conflict can arise. Socrates saw disagreement everywhere in Athens. Two citizens about a debt, two soldiers about a battle plan, two philosophers about a definition.

His diagnosis of disagreement was striking. Disagreement arises because of ignorance of the truth. If both parties knew the truth of the matter, there would be no disagreement. The fight comes from the fact that one or both parties has not yet seen the situation clearly.

His treatment of disagreement followed from his diagnosis. Consensus on important things is only achieved through the search for knowledge and truth, since it is only truth that all can agree upon.

This rules out two common modern paths to agreement.

1. It rules out agreement by exhaustion. Two angry parties get tired and stop arguing. They have not agreed; they have given up.
2. It rules out agreement by power. The stronger party silences the weaker. They have not agreed; the weaker is afraid to speak.

The only Socratic path to real consensus is the patient work of careful thinking together. This is slow. It is sometimes painful. It is also, in his view, the only honest path.

Flashcard

How is real consensus achieved, on Socrates' view?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Through the search for truth, not through exhaustion or power

If disagreement comes from ignorance, the only honest cure is shared thinking that approaches the truth of the matter. Agreement by exhaustion or by force is not consensus; it is surrender.