Articles with keyword: Love

The best-known historical character who is connected to Socratic education is Alcibiades. The link between this pedagogical relationship and the ancient notion of παιδεία can be found in almost every author of Σωκρατικοὶ λόγοι. Scholars of ancient philosophy concur that all Socratic works on Alcibiades were meant as a unified response of sorts, on the part of Socrates’ circle, to Polycrates’ Accusation, with the objective of demonstrating Socrates’ innocence. There would seem to be no reason to doubt Socrates’ positive effect on Alcibiades. On the other hand, we cannot question the Alcibiades’ undeniable negative side of Alcibiades. The aim of this paper is to answer a controversial question: how could Socrates the philosopher have been educated by the arrogant Alcibiades? Whereas most contemporary scholars consider Alcibiades solely as a student of Socrates (as receiving a Socratic education), we approach the matter from the other way around: we wish to establish the extent to which Alcibiades acted on Socrates, in a certain sense, thus educating him (even if unintentionally). In our paper, we focus on Aeschines’ and Plato’s portrayals of Alcibiades.