The Lover of Wisdom II

Posted: Wed, Sep 17, 2025

Jigsaw

Stage 1: Expert Groups

I’ll assign each group to become the expert on one of five passages. Focusing on the passage you’ve been given, please work together on the following questions (one student should take notes, which I will ask you to post to CourseWorks > Discussions along with everybody’s names):

  • How is the philosopher portrayed by this passage? What are they—is he!—like?
  • What image of philosophy emerges from this portrait? What’s being valued/stressed, and what’s not?

Here are the passages:

  1. Plato, Euthyphro, 7a–10a, 15c–16a
  2. Plato, Apology, 21a–e, 23a–24a, 38a–42a
  3. Plato, Crito, 48b–53a
  4. Plato, Republic, 514a–517a, and Phaedo, 116b–118a
  5. Aristotle, Metaphysics I.1–2, 980a22–983a23

Stage 2: New Intermixed Groups

Each expert group should have at least one of: a cat person, a dog person, a bird person, a turtle person, and a penguin person. I’ll then ask you to find classmates of your species and form new groups.

In your new group, please first walk your classmates through the passage you are an expert on. Next, please reflect on the following questions as a group (again, one student should take notes, which I will ask you to post to CourseWorks > Discussions along with everybody’s names):

  • Is there a through line? According to these passages, what is philosophy all about, and what does a philosopher look like?
  • Is this how you would like to think of philosophy/the philosopher?

The Socratic Method

Intense interrogation leading one to realize that one’s initial view isn’t so tenable after all.

  • ~Philosophy as midwifery.

First Philosophy

Not first in time, but first in generality -> wisdom.

  • Not mere that something is the case, but why—an inquiry into causes.
  • Not just any causes, but first causes/first principles.
  • Not studied because useful, but for its own sake.

The idea of a “core” of contemporary philosophy.