PHILOSOPHERS' DEBATE ON EDUCATION · Spring 2026 · Torch: U.S.
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In the year 427 BCE, the philosopher Plato was born. A student of Socrates, Plato would later use him as a character to explain his philosophies in his dialogue-structured books. Though Socrates never left any of his own writings, he is best known for the teaching method named after him. He believed through questioning and refuting a student, we could come closer to philosophical truths. Socrates often employed his method on random youth in the streets of Athens. Then, in 399 BCE, Socrates was tried and executed for “corrupting the youth.” Today, education is just as controversial. So, we must ask how the great minds of antiquity and modernity would approach this problem…
The year is 2025. In the streets of Athens, a man in a white tunic approaches a young boy.
SOCRATES: Young boy, are you being educated?
THE BOY: Yes sir, I am.
SOCRATES: Well then, what is education?
THE BOY: I beg your pardon?
SOCRATES: I desire to know the definition of the word.
THE BOY: Well, I would say it is when a teacher stands in front of you and orates on a topic.
SOCRATES: Well, by your definition, you can’t learn through action. Can a deaf man not be educated?
THE BOY: Okay…It is when a teacher speaks or acts in order to relay knowledge to a student.
SOCRATES: Well then boy, I guess one can’t educate oneself then? But then who taught you how to breathe?
PLATO: Let me intrude, boy. I’ve played his games before. My great teacher Socrates was going to lead you to the conclusion that the apex of education is to know thyself.
SOCRATES: Oh confound you Plato! Must you always speak for me! I am trying to teach these youths how to think!
PLATO: Well if I may, I have a few beliefs on that myself. You see, at the Academy, I preach the Theory of Forms. Now first, you must understand that the soul is split into three parts, the ruling one being Reason. Now, child, the physical world you perceive is tempermental, meaningless without the eternal world of forms that exists beneath it. All knowledge you perceive is but speculation. Only knowledge gained by philosophy, thinking in a way that tears back the veil, is truth. We must teach the youth to be philosophers, and search past perceptions using Reason.
Socrates: Oh student, always more interested in the world than his own faculties.
Aristotle: My teacher! Again with this Theory of Forms. In the Lyceum we…
The boy: Wait! Who are you?
Aristotle: Oh..sorry. My name is Aristotle. Anyway, regarding education, we must teach students the principles of the world around them, which they can use to discover empirical truths. Yes, students must work to attain truth through logic. If A, then B; if B, then C; this is how the world works. Nothing can be both right and wrong simultaneously, we can find the truth. We must also teach the children virtue, through repetition of this, they can find happiness.
Plato: Oh student, the foundation of your philosophy is based on illusion. It is the World of Forms that…
Nietzsche: I wonder, oh great Plato, how your face will form around my fist!
Plato: Excuse me, you barbarian?!?!
Nietzsche: Well forgive me, but your transcendent values have pulled our minds down into the hole in which you lie! You believe there to be some invisible force behind everything, there isn’t. And Aristotle, with your virtue. Yes, we all should strive for happiness, but not by reaching some objective truth, for there isn’t one. As for education, I admire you Greeks. Your competitive culture is just what students need to thrive. But Plato, your ideas are a plague on my youth. Education today is all too focused on pushing the whims of society, and not on the student himself. Individual achievement, that is what we should teach. We must teach them to think past societal norms, which are shackles to philosophy. Instead, schools attempt to push virtue and Christianity, which will never lead to sound education! Kant: Now you brute, I resent that! I grew up a proud Protestant, and taught religion to my students… Nietzsche: And were sent to jail for teaching it wrong! Kant: Be that as it may, I do agree with some of your points, but you are all too vindictive of our society’s moral values. Moral codes are a derision of the reason, and are innate to all humans. We must all follow good morals, because they are natural to our being. Furthermore, contemplating these values causes students to look into themselves and ask why they do things, their own internal faculties. Socrates: Know thyself… Kant: Right…Our minds perceive the things around us; these truths can be known. What our minds don’t perceive, can not be known to us. So, I agree that schools should focus more on the student. But, I argue that knowledge is found within oneself. Epicurus: Within ourselves, nay. Knowledge is gained through the senses, that’s how everything is known. Intellectual pursuit, just as any endeavor, is and should be done to achieve pleasure. Aristotle says happiness is the highest good. I agree, but I would more aptly describe it as pleasure, gained through the senses. The boy: Who are you people and why are there so many of you?!?! Pythagoras: Room for one more?! I believe students should learn about triangles!!! And so, more and more philosophers crowded the streets of Athens, each with their own opinion on how schools should go about teaching. The dialogue became more of a series of unconnected monologues. So, next time you’re sitting in class and believe you could come up with a better way of teaching, remember that everyone else in history thought so too.