Plato and Human Intellectual Development: A New Theoretical Framework Emphasising the Higher-Order Pedagogy of the Platonic Dialogues

For Plato reason is the most precious resource that individuals possess. The opportunities created by rationality have not to be wasted. But human beings have appetites which can lead their rational sight in the wrong direction. This danger has to be avoided: education is the means which allows the individuals to make the most of their rational nature. Plato’s philosophy is a philosophy of rational education. Plato interacts dialogically with his readers, asking explicitly for their collaboration. This intellectual stimulation is at the base of a higher-order pedagogy, in which Plato’s readers are the protagonists of the philosophical message. Their contributions can be a radical criticism of Plato’s thinking or their ideas can take place within the perimeter of Plato’s philosophical system, defined by the detachment from the tangible realm as means to reach the purely intelligible, which constitutes for Plato the peak of human knowledge. I have chosen this second option: when Plato states that his account of human intellectual development has to be completed with more arguments that those described in his text, I have reconstructed what intellectual progress could be for Plato. Consistently, this reconstruction is grounded in the interdisciplinary methodology advocated by Plato himself as crucial for the rational growth of the human beings. Theories elaborated by modern and contemporary scholars are not used to demonstrate that Plato could foresee the results of this research. Nevertheless, these results allow the rendition to the modern reader of the intellectual complexity of one of the best philosophical minds of every time. The investigation carried out via this interdisciplinary approach makes emerge aspects of Plato’s thinking which are the core of a project in which the critical skills of children are stimulated by philosophical pedagogy