Spring 2026 · Torch: U.S. · PHILOSOPHERS' DEBATE ON EDUCATION
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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: 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.