Shame and Learning in Plato's Apology

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Shame and Learning in Plato's Apology

ABSTRACT:

In the Apology, Socrates proves to be the master teacher (1) of Athens in the way that he invites the city to overcome its "cognitive shame." Psychologist and teacher Paul Shane contends that much of the learning process begins in shame. (2) Shane defines shame in this way:

Shame is the feeling of being exposed and wanting to hide one's nakedness. It is related to ego-ideal. One has a conception of self, an image of what one can be, and the feeling of shame is experienced in not having achieved a desired and attainable goal, in lacking something, in being inadequate. Rather than being a function of not having lived up to the standards of another, it is having failed or disappointed oneself.

Shane holds that shame is an element in the learning process because the individual does not want to be in a position of having his or her ignorance exposed. In this way, "cognitive shame" spurs on the student's desire ". . . to explore and acquire, to master and become competent." (3) If an important element in the learning process of the pupil is her need to overcome this shame of not knowing then it seems that she is in a very awkward position, in fact an intolerable position! On the one hand her shame at not knowing is the spur that drives her on to want to transcend her limitations and the feelings of inadequacy, of ignorance that threaten her. On the other hand, the only way she can overcome her state of ignorance and free herself from the shame that threatens her is by revealing her ignorance and thereby making herself vulnerable to the very feelings of shame that will attend this disclosure. Shane implicitly points to this dilemma in his discussion of the questionable structu...

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...ely, a certain degree of irony here but Socrates' fundamental orientation as the sort of teacher who is at the same time a learner is to be taken very seriously. Socrates, in fact, breaks down the distinction between teacher and pupil by making the learning process a collaborative one.

(2) Paul Shane, Ph.D., "Shame and Learning," American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 50 (2), April 1980.

(3) Shane, 352.

(4) Shane, 350-351.

(5) Shane, 352.

(6) Shane, 352.

(7) The verb, here, dokounton, is slightly ambiguous. It can mean, one of those who seem or appear to be wise or one of those who have a reputation for being wise.

(8) This, I take it, is the grounds of his hesitation and difficulty, namely, that he is challenging the god's utterance.

(9) He appears to be someone involved in the political affairs of the city from Apology 21c4, tis ton politikon.

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