daska wrote:I saw this article in the Independent and the quote "Nothing taught by force stays in the soul" jumped out at me. It seemed a highly appropriate subject for discussion here.
Is Plato right?
Firstly, may I say a very interesting article and well spotted.
Now to the question. My gut reaction is yes. When things are taught under duress, be it threat or application of physical force or even strong coercive or manipulative force, it seems that there is often a kick back reaction to resist. Certainly if you are struggling with something then have threats hanging over you can make it incredibly hard to concentrate.
That said, people who have been in abusive situations do learn patterns of behaviour to survive that can be very difficult to shake once out of the abuse and I would have said that the scars left can be very deep and imprinted on the soul. So I ended up saying it depends in the vote.
What I liked about the article is how empowered people feel when allowed to think for themselves. It doesn't matter what it is that people actually believe but give them the freedom to explore and discover for themselves and they find their own passions and beliefs and reasons.
Philosophy (in the academic sense not the SES Sense) I think is a very important subject. Most of the time it seems to be a reassurance that it is OK to question things and that the questions we have are not stupid as many of them have been asked before.
Bonsai