Virtue is a concept often discussed by ancient Greek philosophers. What is virtue? How do you acquire virtue? Many philosophers have different answers, which leads to different connotations and sources. Socrates is very concerned about virtue. Plato, as a student, expressed Socrates' views on the concept of virtue everywhere in his early works, such as Syria Tour, Crever Dayton, Duty, Rush, Friendship, Mino and so on. Socrates put forward the important proposition that "virtue is knowledge". As for its meaning, he believes that all virtues are inseparable from knowledge, which is the foundation of virtue and runs through all virtues. Virtue is not some concepts and norms that exist in isolation. Any virtue should have corresponding knowledge. Ignorant people can't be really virtuous. In order to prove his point of view, he discussed four popular virtues at that time, namely wisdom, justice, courage and temperance, and thought that each virtue could not be separated from knowledge. Knowing that knowledge is the essence of virtue. He believes that wisdom is a virtue, but a wise person must be good at thinking, and thinking cannot be separated from knowledge. This kind of knowledge is the ability to distinguish right from wrong, true and false, good and evil. Justice is also a virtue, and this virtue is based on the knowledge that can correctly handle the relationship between people and between others and me. Courage is also a virtue, and rational knowledge runs through it. Courage is useless without rational knowledge. The doctrine of the mean is also a virtue, which cannot be separated from the knowledge of restraining desires, understanding needs and being strict with oneself. Therefore, he believes that knowledge is a virtue.
From this conclusion, Socrates analyzed the good and evil of human beings. He believes that the good and evil of human beings depends not on human nature, but on human knowledge. Nature is man's need, and the difference and way of need will lead to the result of good and evil. He believes that everyone pursues what he thinks is good, but no one pursues evil. Because good is beneficial and blessed, while evil is useless and disastrous. The cause of evil lies in lack of knowledge. Therefore, in order to make people be good and happy, people must have knowledge. With knowledge, they can have wisdom and distinguish good from evil in their pursuit. He said, "Whatever they study and do rationally is beneficial. If they don't, they are harmful. " (Note: Dai Benbo, editor-in-chief: History of Foreign Education. People's Education Press 1 May 19891Edition, 102 Page. Generally speaking, everything the soul tries or bears will end in happiness if it is guided by knowledge, and will end in the opposite way if it is guided by ignorance. (Note: Dai Benbo, editor-in-chief: History of Foreign Education, People.
What is knowledge? Socrates revised the statement of the school of the wise that "man is the measure of all things", and he put forward that "a thinking man is the measure of all things". So those perceptual experiences or individual and special understandings of things are not fully understood. Socrates pursues an eternal and universally applicable knowledge, so as far as education is concerned, knowledge is philosophy and moral philosophy. Philosophy is the understanding of the universe, and moral philosophy is the understanding of life. Only by knowing the knowledge of the universe and life can we understand the truth of being a man and being a man.
The proposition that "virtue is knowledge" put forward by Socrates, although it seems that its knowledge connotation is one-sided and narrow, its philosophical and educational value has important enlightenment for us to implement quality education. In the process of quality education, we must seriously consider the following two relations: First, the relationship between virtue and knowledge. What is the relationship between human virtue and knowledge, and can it be directly proportional to human knowledge? People without education, or people without knowledge, have no virtue. Of course, none of these questions can be answered affirmatively. However, the long-term illusion sometimes makes it impossible for us to deal with this relationship comprehensively and seriously, so that some phenomena such as "high score but low energy", "high score without morality" and "high score and low score" appear in educational practice. Second, the relationship between virtue and education. Education fosters virtue, and virtue comes from education. This has formed * * * knowledge. But in educational practice, why are some people corrupt with high educational ethics, while others are virtuous with little education? Therefore, the relationship between virtue and education is not simply proportional, virtue is the purpose of education, not necessarily the result; Education is the source of virtue, but it is not the only source.
Socrates advocates that "virtue is knowledge", which has a lot to do with his political philosophy. From a political point of view, Socrates tends to be ruled by slave owners and nobles. He believes that only a few outstanding people can be competent for the work of governing the country. Only these outstanding people have "thinking power", so they can have morality. He doesn't believe in the political understanding and ability of the public, and thinks that the public lacks rationality and can only follow blindly. Therefore, in the period of social unrest, only a few slave owners and nobles have the "thinking power" to possess knowledge. From this political point of view, Socrates' famous saying in philosophical thought is "Know yourself" (Note: History of Foreign Education, edited by Dai Benbo, People's Education Press, 1989, 1. In his view, God created man, and the soul is the highest quality of man, guiding his body and behavior. Therefore, all virtues must be based on this from now on. He said: "God has arranged a thinking soul in human body. With a soul, people know that they can gain strength through exercise and knowledge through labor." (Note: Dai Benbo, editor-in-chief: Foreign Countries. People's Education Press, May 1989, 1 edition, 100 page. Therefore, in his view, knowing yourself is to improve self-awareness and realize that you are a soul and a rational person. One should be aware of one's dignity and be able to make independent judgments on things by thinking. It is based on this epistemology.
From this point of view, "knowing yourself" is the main philosophical basis of Socrates' proposition that virtue is knowledge. The educational model of acquiring knowledge and perfecting morality advocated by Socrates is of positive significance in improving self-education ability, increasing self-rational knowledge and cultivating self-personality and individuality in today's quality education. It is also the thought in western educational thought that virtue is regarded as knowledge, and knowledge is the essence of virtue and becomes the essence of human nature → harmonious development → personality liberation.
Since virtue is knowledge, where do virtue and knowledge come from? Socrates famously said, "Virtue comes from education". Virtue is not innate, and knowledge is not innate. Therefore, to realize people's virtue, people must accept, understand and master knowledge, and people's understanding and mastery of knowledge cannot be separated from education. In this way, Socrates regarded education as the source of virtue, thus highlighting the importance of education for human development. However, Socrates emphasized the importance of education. It does not refer to the purposeful and planned education of society, philosophers and educators to the public. He believes that the task of philosophers and educators is not to fabricate and impart knowledge and truth, but to become a midwife of new ideas and pass them on. The task of philosophers and teachers is to help people discover their inner knowledge truth in order to realize their own virtues. So in lectures and debates, he often exposes each other's contradictions and satirizes each other's mistakes by talking, answering questions, discussing or asking questions. He won't directly tell each other his views. In the debate, the other party had to admit his own point of view, thus accepting Socrates' point of view. His method was later called "midwifery" or "spiritual midwifery". It is by using this method that Socrates further demonstrated his own "in the debate".
Socrates' "spiritual midwifery" has a great influence on later generations. It can be said that it is the earliest discovery teaching method, and it is also one of the ideological sources of advocating debate → encouraging innovation → logical reasoning → scientific argumentation in western teaching thought. His understanding that "virtue comes from education" has a positive influence on the future generations to attach importance to the role of education and the cultivation of virtue. Today, our quality education, personally speaking, is a subjective educational practice, so we need our educators to be good at using the method of "midwifery" to guide educators to understand and accept the socialist concept of virtue. The concept of virtue formed through one's own practice is true, credible and lasting. Otherwise, without the active practice of the subject, in the process of people's growth, many morals will probably form some false "virtues" and "double-faced personalities" without cognitive conflict, emotional experience, temper of will and sense of drowsiness and contradiction in behavior, and in the face of interests and conflicts, morality will become an ornament for some people, thus bringing harm to society and others.
Socrates' educational proposition "Virtue is knowledge" has its class nature, some one-sidedness in methods and some subjective colors based on philosophy, but as the initial period of educational thought, it is undoubtedly an important source of western philosophy education and science education. It is also based on the understanding of these embryonic periods that later educators understand morality and knowledge from the perspective of philosophy and science. So that during the Renaissance, people carried the banner of reviving ancient Greek humanism, advocated the theory of natural humanity, harmonious development and individual liberation, and shouted the slogan "knowledge is power". We discuss Socrates' educational proposition in order to make us correctly understand the relationship between virtue and knowledge in educational thought, scientifically analyze the role of virtue and knowledge in human development, make people form virtue in the process of seeking knowledge, and make any virtue have the basis of scientific knowledge.