플라톤의 교육적 이상(理想)으로서의 프쉬카고기아

Psychagogia as Plato’s Ideal of Education

  My thesis in this paper is that psychagogia or the direction of the soul, that Plato gives as a new definition of rhetoric is, in fact, his ideal of education. Towards establishing this thesis, I will argue, first, that Plato, in his later years, criticizes elenchus that his master Socrates used in his so-called Socratic education; second, that Plato proposes psychagogia to make up for the shortcomings of elenchus as an education or an educational method. Third, I will show how psychagogia as Plato"s ideal education operates in the educational setting. By the end of these arguments, I hope I will have shown that Plato embraces habituation and the affective side of the human soul in his new approach to education, although he by no means abandons his rigorous intellectual standard; and that he just wants to tame the destructive effects a rigorous intellectual training has on the soul in its more tender stage.