Plato's Epistemology

One of you wondered why we are reading the difficult and fairly technical material in Book VI, given that it may not even be Plato's view (only a theory!) or even the primary thing that Socrates wants G&A to learn, and it would seem to have relatively little directly to do with issues pedagogical. This is a fair question.

One reason I think it is worth our time is that such systematic reasoning about the nature of being and knowing does seem to be a critical step -- though only a step -- in Socrates' attempt to prepare students to learn what's most important. In this regard it is another example of his principled caginess, as he presents such allegedly pure rationality as the lesson plan itself, when actually there's much more at stake.

Another is that if we are to evaluate Sayre's contention that for Plato the most important insights are inaccessible to language and logic, but rooted in emotion and image, and requiring a special quality of intellectual intuition, we need to see how such an idea might develop. Later in the course we will talk about critical thinking as a central goal of all learning (Siegel), and we will need to understand this, as it may present a pointed challenge to that view.