Learning objectives

Knowledge and understanding 1. To know and understand the structural relation between the character of Socrates and the practice of maieutic dialogue. 2. To know and understand the pedagogical relevance of the classical "paideia", in particular the how it is described and practiced by Socrates in the Platonic dialogues and in the Socratic literature. 3. Knowing and understanding several fundamental elements of the Socratic dialogue: the search for meaning, irony, refutation, paradox, the exhortation to self-care and to the value of life within the "polis". Applying knowledge and understanding 1. Understanding the theoretical meaning of the Socratic dialogue in the contemporary ways of communication, focusing on issues of both continuity and discontinuity ad to the problems involved. 2. Rethinking and reformulating the educational dialogue, as a commonly understood today, in the light of the Socratic practice of dialogue, as presented in the Platonic dialogues and in the Socratic literature. 3. Rethinking the professional profile and lifestyle of the educator and pedagogist by looking at the way Socrates thinks and acts in the Platonic dialogues and the Socratic literature.