Saturday, January 25, 2014

Is the goal of education to "put sight into blind eyes", according to Plato?

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, he argues against the belief that education is like "putting sight into blind eyes." In the text, the character of Socrates argues that the ability to learn is an inherent human trait; in other words, teachers do not provide students with the skills to seek knowledge because all people are born with that ability. A better metaphor for this interpretation of education is that the role of education is to point students towards the truth and improve the focus of their sight. The role of the teacher is to teach the student how to discover truth, so that learning skills are made relevant. This is an important argument within the text, because it shows Socrates' belief that anyone can become a philosopher; if learning and truth-seeking are inherent human traits, and the role of the teacher is only to focus these traits, that means that anyone is capable of benefiting equally from education.

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