Bitter Knowledge

Learning Socratic Lessons of Disillusion and Renewal

Thomas Eisele

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780268027742
• eBook ISBN: 9780268078638
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Legal Profession

Thomas Eisele explores the premise that the Socratic method of inquiry need not teach only negative lessons (showing us what we do not know, but not what we do know). Instead, Eisele contends, the Socratic method is cyclical: we start negatively by recognizing our illusions, but end positively through a process of recollection performed in response to our disillusionment, which ultimately leads to renewal. Thus, a positive lesson about our resources as philosophical investigators, as students and teachers, becomes available to participants in Socrates' robust conversational inquiry.

Bitter Knowledge includes Eisele's detailed readings of Socrates' teaching techniques in three fundamental Platonic dialogues, Protagoras, Meno, and Theaetetus, as well as his engagement with contemporary authorities such as Gregory Vlastos, Martha Nussbaum, and Stanley Cavell. Written in a highly engaging and accessible style, this book will appeal to students and scholars in philosophy, classics, law, rhetoric, and education.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Who Can Teach Us? And What Can They Teach Us?
• 3. The Poverty of Socratic Questioning
• 4. The Labor of Socratic Inquiry
• 5. Learning to Find Ourselves at a Loss
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index