Abstract

Assuming that Plato developed his philosophy out of his concern for the moral reform, through education, of the society he belonged to, this dissertation examines Plato's transformation of psychagogia, a concept or practice originally used in magic, into his ideal of philosophy and education. First, it examines how Gorgias developed the art of oratory based on his view of psychagogia, and how Isocrates sublimated the art to a higher cultural and educational dimension. It further examines Socrates' philosophical and educational method known as elenchus as having problems that motivate Plato to propose his ideal of psychagogia. Toward this examination, this dissertation argues that, against the claims of the sophists and orators to be teachers, Socrates used elenchus to show what it really is to be a teacher; that elenchus is Socrates' way of loving, and, finally, that having noticed that the positive effect of love is missing in elenchus, Plato defines education as psychagogia, the leading of the soul