Levels of Analysis

I attempted in class yesterday, haltingly, to articulate the sense in which Plato is dealing with pedagogical issues simultaneously on several levels. At the least, it seems to me, he is having his characters explicitly discuss matters of teaching and learning, and evaluate arguments for one or another view. We might call this the explicit DIALOGIC level.

It also happens that the characters in the dialogue instantiate in their relationships and interactions a theory or theories of teaching and learning. We could call this the DRAMATIC level.

A third level emerges when we consider the ways the dialogic and dramatic levels interact, sometimes underscoring and sometimes undermining each other, in a complicated and fluid process. We might call this the DIALECTICAL level. (I acknowledge the possible confusion between 'dialogic' and ‘dialectical,’ and would welcome a more felicitous suggestion).