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EDU 8673 |
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The enlenchus: In the Meno, Socrates uses the elenchus (a form of dialectics) to assist himself and his student search for truth. The enlenchus is constituted by the idea that human beings search for the truth as teachers gets students to modify their assertions through direct questioning, the answers to which conflict directly with previous assertions. It is this idea of searching for truth, rather than discovering it by inquiring it, that characterizes the Socratic enlenchus. Socrates uses this pedagogical method because he of his keen awareness of the ambiguity of human experience and life in the world as well as the dangers associated with knowledge that is mediated by the sense faculties. Furthermore, Socrates understood how, the very moment people think they know something, they become resistant if not closed to other views and ways of seeing the world; then, people fall into ignorance, arrogance, and narrow-mindedness. In this dialogue, Socrates' questions challenged Meno to reconsider what he thought he was so sure about; suddenly, what Meno believe to be true became complicated and ambiguous, more of a "wrong opinion" than a "right opinion tied down." The point of this pedagogical method is to illustrate the dangers present when one is doctrinaire in one's value and ethical system.
So, the basic process is: a) student asserts X; b) teacher questions student about X by inquiring about ~X; c) student becomes “mind numbed”; d) teacher rephrases questions that help student to recognize that the student doesn’t know X; e) the teacher and student make progress and they engage in discourse about X as an idea. "In the middle is virtue to be found" (in medio stat virtu est) the ancient Stoics taught because, too much food, drugs, and sex can and, as such, its matter is destined over time to wither and decay. The end of the body, then, is death.
Aristotle. (1958). Metaphysics (W. D. Ross, Trans.). In J. D. Kaplan (Ed.), The pocket Aristotle (pp. 106-156). New York: Simon & Schuster. McKechnie, J. L. (Ed.). (1979). Webster's new twentieth century dictionary (second ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster. Plato. (1981). Meno. The five dialogues (G.M.A. Grube, Trans.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co.
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