Reading Plato for Citizenship and Fulfillment

Why teach Plato to plumbers, construction workers, technicians, and nurses?  The short answer is because each of us is more than our occupation, we are citizens. 

If the citizen has any defense against the opinion makers who would herd us in this direction or that, it is the critical thinking skills and independence exhibited in Plato's Socrates.  He teaches us to recognize that the confident speaker may not be worthy of our confidence.  He teaches us the kinds of questions to ask. As witnesses to his dialogues we see that most people may be well-intended but that they do not know as much as they think they know.

Plato has long been taught in the nation's universities and community colleges and many translations are available in bookstores and libraries, but instruction is not always made relevant and some translations can be intimidating.  If you have an internet connection the engaging instruction from around the world is as close as your personal computer or smartphone. 

I am just finishing John Holbo's Reason and Persuasion: Thinking Through Three Dialogues by Plato and have found myself engaged at a whole new level.  When I first read Plato twenty years ago, the novelty was enough to hold my attention despite uninspired classroom instruction.  John Holbo's presentation is first rate, relevant to how we live in the present and, importantly, totally free. 

Why read Plato?  It is a good way to be less of a chump and live a more reflective life.  That is one of the places that patriotism and self-fulfillment overlap. 

Critical thinking provides benefits in all areas of life: work and business as well interacting with government from the level of your average traffic stop to national elections.  Yes, you can live a reflective without reading Plato but it is no exaggeration to say you are reinventing the wheel.   Hell, some optimists believe Plato might even be able to expand the minds of MBA students.

I almost forgot, there is one cost to reading Plato and meeting Socrates through a couple of his dialogues.  Not only do many people "out there" not know as much as they think they know, there is a good chance you will be forced at address that possibility that neither do you.