Am I a Sophist?

Someone who puzzles or wonders...thinks himself ignorant. Aristotle, Metaphysics 2A

I had recognized it as having been mentioned to me as a remarkable work by the teacher or friend who appeared to me at that period to hold the secret of the truth and beauty half sensed, half incomprehensible, the knowledge of which was the goal, vague but permanent, of my thoughts M. Proust, Swann's Way

The teacher is an image of the whole of education, and in their presentation are communicated the aims and approaches of a life of learning. Standing before the classroom of students, the teacher has the option of showing themselves as a knower or a non-knower. My chosen subject is the tension between the temptations of the first and the fertile promise of the second. This article has one recommendation for educators: that we ask our students questions we ourselves do not know the answer to.

The two models I speak of bear a great resemblance to the two approaches of teaching sketched by Jacob Klein in his lecture "On Liberal Education." There is the "Aristotelian view" in which the "word of the teacher acts as the form which in-forms the material of the learner's soul, in-forms the capability this soul has, and trans-forms it into a knowing soul" (267). The second is the "Socratic and Platonic view" in which "through questioning and arguing the teacher compels the learner to pull out of himself, as it were, something slumbering in him at all times" (267). In these two views put forward by Klein we can see that a teacher may emphasize known content as well as their own desire for unattained knowledge, exhibited in the act of questioning. Klein notes that they are both a part of the "great vehicle of learning," which is discussion and that each of these views has some share in the other (268).

If these two modes of teaching do in fact have some share in the other, what, then, is the relationship between these two approaches? I have a hunch that while they are distinct modes, there is a relationship between them such that the act of questioning itself helps to form a student. The Aristotelian view of "begetting and conceiving" (267) may be understood first as the transference of learned knowledge from one mind to another, but even the Socratic-Platonic view can in no way avoid begetting. Klein notes that "begetting is an important element in Socrates' practice" (267). I will suggest that when the teacher presents themselves as an inquirer, something is communicated and engendered in the student. Even if it is not content knowledge, it is also not impotent ignorance. What may be communicated and hopefully begotten is an understanding of learning as something that can never be completed, of learning as a continual desiring for truth.

We may then wonder what is communicated and begotten by the teacher who always has answers but no questions, or if they do have questions then they already have an answer. I will admit one advantage of a teacher who speaks with great knowledge. There is undoubtably something to marvel at in a teacher capable of weaving together what had hitherto been disparate phenomena into a cohesive intelligible whole, drawing out from the depths of their knowledge some golden connection that illumines even briefly some mystery. Teachers such as these inspire us all to greater heights of learning and breadth of knowledge. Not being one of these I know the temptation to appear to be. It was while trying to be one that I asked myself: "Am I a sophist? And if so, how am I forming my students?"

It is a marvelous thing when a student asks a question, and I have had occasion recently to reflect on my handling of various questions. To be sure, there certainly are questions that admit of a simple answer given authoritatively. "When was Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor?" "Who succeeded Richard the Lionheart?" However, I recall other questions I have been asked. For example, while reading Paul Verlaine's "Clair de Lune" and discussing the play of images, one of my students asked, "what is the soul?" In the past I may have said "the soul is X," in hopes of simplifying matters and providing for the edification of my students while also confirming my authority as the teacher. Would not a better response be: "Many great minds have asked that question. Since we have the poem of Verlaine in front of us, let us see what his thoughts may be." I would like to think more about how questioning is exhibited in the classroom and how the teacher serves as the model on which the students form themselves.

The Protagoras begins with the search for a teacher. Plato's dialogue on sophistic education showcases the allure of the man from Abdera, whose Orphean charms are sought by a potential student. Young Hippocrates, though he has never met Protagoras, desires to come under his tutelage. Socrates suspects his friend has not considered the danger he may be subjecting his soul to and commences an examination. It becomes clear to Hippocrates that by studying under a sophist he should not be surprised if he becomes a sophist himself, just as studying under a physician would make one a physician, and sculptor a sculptor. Socrates anticipates his friend's counter by asking if it were not to become a "skilled practitioner" of the craft "but rather for the sake of such an education as befits an amateur and a free man" (312b). Hippocrates affirms this, only for Socrates to assert it matters little what one hopes to gain from the learning, and what is important is that the learning brings something into the soul. If the words of the teacher do form the souls of their students, there is no way to remain unaffected by someone else's teaching. As Socrates says a little while later, "it isn't possible to carry off learning in another container" (314b). The soul will be formed by what the students learn and who teaches them. Socrates refers broadly to the benefit or harm that will come to the student as a result of giving their soul to a teacher, but an ever-present, specific possibility is that the student will become such as the teacher.

That the student may become such as the teacher ought to induce all educators to wonder at what lessons they are teaching with just their manner. On numerous occasions I have found myself unknowingly imitating some of my former teachers. I have also noticed that students of mine have picked up as habits some of the ways I approach texts and ask questions. Let us therefore wish to fight any prideful temptation to produce an answer for the sake of having an answer to give. Bowing before the great thinkers of the past, toward whom we ought to point our students, let us encourage both wonder at the mysterious and a habit of questioning, which one philosopher beautifully called "the piety of thought."

References

Aristotle, Metaphysics (Translated by C.D.C Reeve; Hacket Publishing Company 2016)

Heidegger, Martin. "The Question Concerning Technology" (Translated by William Lovitt; Harper Perennial Modern Thought 2013)

Klein, Jacob. "On Liberal Education" from Lectures and Essays (St. John's College Press 2013)

Plato, Protagoras (Translated by Robert C. Bartlett; Cornell University Press 2004)

Proust, Marcel. Swann's Way (Translated by Lydia Davis; Penguin Books 2002)