{"id":247,"date":"2019-12-17T22:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T22:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-westernciv-humandevelopment\/chapter\/m5-discourse-i-plato-and-locke-on-the-blank-slate\/"},"modified":"2020-01-15T17:43:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T17:43:03","slug":"m5-discourse-i-plato-and-locke-on-the-blank-slate","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-westernciv-humandevelopment\/chapter\/m5-discourse-i-plato-and-locke-on-the-blank-slate\/","title":{"raw":"M5 \u2013 Discussion I: Socrates\/Plato and Locke on the Blank Slate","rendered":"M5 \u2013 Discussion I: Socrates\/Plato and Locke on the Blank Slate"},"content":{"raw":"
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The work of Plato, in the name of Socrates, had been immensely influential in Western civilization. Unlike\u00a0most philosophers, Plato\u00a0 expressed the philosophy of Socrates in the form of dialogues. Phaedo<\/em> is a dialogue that recounts the death of Socrates. The teacher of Plato, Socrates,was the main character in Plato\u2019s dialogues. He was a philosopher who traveld the city of Athens and investigating philosophical ideas and people\u2019s beliefs about them. For instance, he would talk to powerful politicians and young people alike about the nature of justice or goodness or beauty. The structure followed by the dialogues was that people would answer thoughtful questions, Socrates would ask them to clarify their positions, and as the discourse proceeded, it would become clear that people had opinions that were inconsistent and illogical. (Plato & Gallop, 2019).<\/p>\r\n

While Socrates always claimed not to know the answers, and was very humble, it was clear by the end of\u00a0each dialogue that no one else knew the answers either and that Socrates, who\u00a0rarely claimed knowledge, had the best arguments. Socrates was a real person, and Plato\u2019s dialogues are\u00a0one of the few sources of information about his life, personality, and beliefs. What we know is that he was tried by the city-state of Athens, found guilty, and executed for his philosophical activity (Plato & Gallop, 2019).<\/p>\r\n

Phaedo<\/em> recounts the last day of Socrates\u2019s life, specifically a conversation in which Socrates explains to his friends why, as a philosopher, he is not afraid to die. In one section, Socrates discusses the nature of knowledge. Socrates argues that in 'learning' , we are reminded of something we learned before we were born. That is, for Socrates,\u00a0learning is not a matter of information or data being impressed\u00a0on a blank mind, but rather the knowledge already lies dormant within the person, waiting to be activated. So, learning something is remembering what we once knew (before birth) but forgot. This argument (that knowledge is recollection) fits into the larger dialogue (Plato & Gallop, 2019).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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In his book The Blank Slate<\/em>, Stephen Pinker argues that \u201cevery society must operate with a theory of human nature\u201d and that \u201cour intellectual mainstream is committed\u201d to the notion of the blank slate. (Pinker, 2002; TED, n.d.). How and why has this preference for the blank slate come about and what social and political factors are involved in its continuing promotion?<\/p>\r\n\r\n