Plato III

Abstract

The final chapter in the cycle on Plato addresses Socratic pedagogy. To do so, it looks at her article ‘Philosophy Terminable and Interminable’ (1977) which was published in the context of a campaign group opposing changes to the status of philosophy in the final year (terminale) of French secondary school teaching. She re-stages debates from Plato, as well as bringing in Nietzsche and Descartes, to deconstruct certain arguments around students’ development and maturity and the alleged unsuitability of philosophy as a subject at various stages. The chapter thus shows again how ancient thought allows Kofman to move between psychoanalytical and philosophical concerns as she pursues a thinking of how one might live.