What Socrates Learned From Parmenides. Part 1. Parmenides’ Gymnasia and Socrates’ Intellectual Virtues

Annie Larivée

What Socrates Learned From Parmenides. Part 1. Parmenides’ Gymnasia and Socrates’ Intellectual Virtues

Publication date: 08.10.2024

ORGANON, 2024, Volume 56, pp. 89 - 117

https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.007.20209

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What Socrates Learned From Parmenides. Part 1. Parmenides’ Gymnasia and Socrates’ Intellectual Virtues

Abstract

This is the first of two studies in which I examine Plato’s account of Parmenides’ contribution to Socrates’ education. This account suggests, I argue, that Socrates became a virtuoso of the elenchos and the embodiment of fundamental intellectual virtues thanks to the gymnasia depicted in the Parmenides. I show how Parmenides’ eightfold routine is not a method of philosophical investigation strictly speaking; rather, it is a skill-building exercise that relies on memory and whose virtue is partly defensive. My demonstration is based on three sets of distinctions required to do justice to the preparatory character of Parmenides’ gymnasia. The first differentiates three types of intellectual virtues, the second two kinds of training methods, and the third, three telic modes.

Keywords

pedagogy, training, intellectual virtues, skills, dialectic

References

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Information

Information: ORGANON, 2024, Volume 56, pp. 89 - 117

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.007.20209

Article type: Original article

Authors

Annie Larivée

Carleton University
Canada

Published at: 08.10.2024

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Percentage share of authors:

Annie Larivée (Author) - 100%

Information about author:

Annie Larivée is Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, where she served two terms as Chair of the Philosophy Department. She has published extensively on topics revolving around care for the soul and self in Plato as well as philosophy as a way of life and as an art of living in ancient philosophy. For the past few years, she has been an active member of the project Mapping Philosophy as a Way of Life: An Ancient Model, a Contemporary Approach funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

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What Socrates Learned From Parmenides. Part 1. Parmenides’ <em>Gymnasia </em>and Socrates’ Intellectual Virtues

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