Education, Play, and Civic Friendship in Plato and Beyond - Detailseite

This seminar explores two underappreciated (though in certain circles very influential) strands of Plato's political thought, as well as the connection between them. One strand is about how education should be conducted: Plato insists that it must be through play (paidia). We will explore together just what Plato means by play, and why Plato thinks play is so important, especially for the development of the virtues by specifically moral education. The other strand is civic friendship. We will look at both Plato and Aristotle's treatments friendship, with a focus on civic friendship, and ask particularly why Plato takes civic friendship to be inextricable from civic virtue. Time permitting, we will also take a look at recent literature which aims at a revival of civic friendship as a politically relevant idea (e.g. Paul Ludwig's book titled "Rediscovering Political Friendship").