Date of Award
8-1999
Honors Thesis Number
011004
Major
Workforce Education and Development
Abstract
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, "Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone." This thought correlates to the well quoted phrase, "Looks can be deceiving." This idea is one which applies to many disciplines. Pertaining to this essay it demonstrates to us that the stone, although old and discarded, can possibly represent something much greater than is seen. When applied to philosophy, words that are old, silting dead on a page, may prove astounding when reexamined. The Socrates dialogues by Plato, can certainly be seen by some to represent this stone of old, dead, and unused wisdom. In this thesis it will be attempted to find something special; an ideology of what good education is. As well as, what lessons can be learned from this blazing meteor, who's works have since become old. This will be done by examining excerpt's from Plato's dialogues, Meno, Ion, Gorgias, Crito, and Phaedrus, that explain a central theme, and then explaining it in terms of lessons to be learned for application to education.