Journal of Educational Sciences

Analysis of dialectical-based learning approach in Meno’s dialogue

https://doi.org/10.22055/edus.2021.36859.3198
Volume 28, Issue 2
December 2021
Pages 21-40
Journal of Educational Sciences

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Mohsen Bohlooli Faskhoodi

Assistant Professor, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract
Introduction
Meno's dialogue covers a wide variety of topics, including the discussion of what virtue is, the possibility of inquiry, learning, teaching methods, the relationship between knowledge and imagination, and finally the theory of recollection. Discussion of the method of teaching and learning is one of the most important topics in Meno’s dialogue. In the text of this dialogue, important educational points such as the condition of teaching a subject, the method of learning based on recollection, and the dialectical method of Socrates are discussed. Conversation with Meno's paradox plan has shown that learning and inquiry the nature of something is difficult. To solve this problem, Plato spoke of the theory of recollection as to the most original way of learning.

Method
The method in this paper is philosophical-analytical based on Meno’s Text and its interpretations.

Results
The research aims to design a dialectical method in Meno’s dialogue as the most appropriate method for teaching and learning critically and collaboratively in the educational system. This method is the product of cooperation between the teacher and the learner and will not be possible without the active participation of the learner and his critical attitude towards the learned material.

Discussion
Meno’s dialogue can be divided into two separate parts. The focus of the first part of the article is an epistemological question about understanding the nature of virtue. In the second part of the dialogue, Plato focuses on an ontological approach to get rid of the paradox of research and learning and move towards the desired result. In the final part of the dialogue, the theory of recollection. The research question is whether the theory of recollection is the best explanation for the original way of learning? Research claims that the answer is negative for two reasons. First, this theory is not able to cover any learning. Second, this theory contradicts Plato's original theory of the teaching of virtue, in which Plato claimed that any learning requires education and, consequently, a teacher.

Keywords

Virtue
Inquiry
Learning
Recollection
Dialectic
Charles, D. (2010). The Paradox in the Meno and Aristotle’s Attempt to Resolve It. Definition in Greek Philosophy, Oxford University Press.
Coombs, G. & Denils, L. (2009). Philosophical Research: Conceptual Analysis, Translated by Khosrow Bagheri, Methodology of Curriculum Studies, Translated by Mehr Mohammadi et al, Tehran: Publications. [Persian]
Diener, D. (2007). An Inquiry in to Teaching in the Meno, Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society, Philosophical Studies in Education, 38, 141-150.
Eckstein, J. (1968). The Platonic Method: An Interpretation of the Dramati Philosophic Aspects of the Meno, New York: Greenwood Publishing Corporation.
Ebrey, D. (2014). Meno’s Paradox in Context, British Journal of the History of Philosophy, 22(1), 4-24.
Fine, G. (2014). The Possibility of Inquiry, Meno’s Paradox from Socrates of Sextus, Oxford University Press.
Franklin, L. (2001). The Structure of Dialectic in the Meno, Phronesis, 46(4), 413-439.
Kyriacou, C. (2012). Meno’s Inquiry Paradox and the Problem of the Criterion, Skepsis, 22(4), 92-101.
McCabe, M. (2009). Escaping One’s Own Notice Knowing: Meno’s Paradox Again, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, 109: 233-256.
Moravcsik, J. (1971). Learning as Recollection, Modern Studies in Philosophy, Plato a Collection of Critical Essays, Metaphysics and Epistemology, edited by Gregory Vlastos, Palgrave Macmillan.
Nehamas, A. (1985). Meno’s Paradox and Socrates as a Teacher, in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Edited by Julia Annas, 3, 1-30.
Paavola, S., & Hakkarainen. (2005). Three Abductive Solutions to the Meno’s Paradox –with Instinct, Inference, and Distributed Cognition. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 24, 235-253.
Plato. (2005). Meno in Oxford World Classics, Meno and Other Dialogues: Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Meno. (R. Waterfield, Trans) Oxford University Press.
Sajadi, S., & Banahan, M. (2014). Evolution of reason through ancient Greece and middle ages and its educational implications, Journal of Educational Sciences, 20(2), 25-44. [Persian]
Sajjadiyeh, N., & Surani, S. (2018). Comparative View on habit in Plato and Aristotle’s thought: A challenge on concept and application, Journal of Educational Sciences, 24(2), 25-48. [Persian]
Sato, K. (2013). Reconsideration of the Paradox of Inquiry, Science and Education, 23(5), 987-995.
Scolnicov, S. (1988). Plato’s Metaphysics of Education, Routledge.
Scott, D, (2006). Plato’s Meno, Cambridge.
Stern, H. (1981). Philosophy of Education in Plato’s Meno, Educational Studies: A Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, 12(1). 23-34.
Stone, A. (2010). On the Teaching of Virtue in Plato’s Meno and the Nature of Philosophical Authority, New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy, 10(1). 251-282.
Stout, D. (2013). Reading Plato’s Meno as the Beginning of Learning: The Drama of the Double Square, Conference Paper, Bishop’s University.
Thomas, J. (1980). Musings on the “Meno”, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff. 152-154.
Weimer, W. (1973). Psycholinguistics and Plato’s Paradoxes of the Meno, American Psychologist, 28(1), 15-33.
Weiner, A. (2015). Knowledge and True Opinion, in Plato’s Meno, Pseudo-Dionysius, XVII, 76-110.
Weiss, R. (2001). “Virtue in the Cave: Moral Inquiry, in Plato’s Meno”, Oxford University Press.
 

Home

Guide for Authors

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us